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DR. W. C. USPENARD'S 

PRACTICAL 




final drato. 



ADAPTED TO THE USE OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL, 

(MALE AND FEMALE,) MOSTLY^ ORIGINAL, 

AND COMPILATIONS FROM EMINENT 

AMERICAN & EUROPEAN MEDICAL 

JttJTHORS, 

by > w. c. v lispenaed, m. d., 

CONTAINING SUCH INFORMATION AS WILL ENABLE THE READER 
TO UNDERSTAND (iF DISEASED,) HIS OWN CASE. 

A COMPLETE AND PRACTICAL WORK ON THE 
PHYSIOIiOOICAL MYSTERIES 

OF THE MALE AND FEMALE SYSTEMS 

LATE EXPERIMENTS, DISCOVERIES IN REPRODUCTION, 

FULL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE CAUSES, SYMPTOMS AND 

CURE OF 

VENERIAL DISEASES, 

GONORRHOEA, GLEET, STRICTURE, &C., S AC, WITH 

ESSAYS ON 

SENSUALISM AND SELF ABUSE ; 

ALSO, 

PREGNANCY, MENSTRUATION, MIDWIFERY, «fec. 



" Know thyself— presume not God to scan, 
The proper study of mankind is man. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, 

No. 14 Exchange Place, Rochester, N. Y 

1854. 




Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1854, 

BY W. C. LISPENARD, M. D., 

in the Clerk's Office of the Court of the Northern District 
of New York. 

Stereotyped by J. W. Brown, Rochester. 



INTRODUCTORY, 

And General Remarks. 



My warmest and most sanguine wishes will be more 
than realized, (in this my second Private Medical 
work,) if in directing the attention of parents, guar- 
dians, heads of families and teachers of our public 
schools, also the young of both sexes, to the important 
subjects herein treated, I shall have anticipated evil, 
checked by timely monition the thoughtless, or have 
armed the young with one timely precaution. To 
alleviate human suffering, is a proud distinction; 
and to be permitted, instrumentally, to promote the 
happiness and well being of our fellow creatures, is 
the highest honor that can possibly be conferred 
upon man. 

The most absurd, ridiculous and mischievous 
speculations and erroneous assumptions have been 
published, largely copied and transformed from 
musty, antediluvian medical books. It is infinitely 
more difficult to forget or discard false impressions 
or erroneous views, than to learn those facts which 
are correct and of real instruction. 



INTRODUCTORY AND 



I am led to make these remarks from hearing 
from all classes, more or less frequently, expressions 
of wrong views on medical subjects. This must 
be attributed to the pernicious teachings of foolish 
books and senseless lectures. 

It is my object to correct such errors, and in so 
doing, my readers will readily see the more plausible 
and reasonable teachings herein incorporated. 

In these introductory remarks, I do not appeal to 
the public, but to the individual reader; they are 
written for him or her, and are intended to be private 
and confidential. This is emphatically a private 
treatise. It is such a book as I wish to put into 
the hands of every man and every woman — yes, 
and every child wise enough to profit by its teach- 
ings — and no others. 

Many combined causes have prevented the earlier 
appearance of this work; the delay, however, has 
been necessary, in order to have it complete, and I 
was determined it should not be issued until it was 
so. It may be advisable to state, also, for the in- 
formation of those not acquainted with me, or my 
previous work, (of which forty large editions were 
published,) that my course of study and long prac- 
tice has been almost exclusively devoted to the 
diseases of which this work treats. I have had 
unusual opportunities for obtaining information on 
these subjects ; and whenever any new discovery, or 



GENERAL REMARKS. 

mode of treatment, has been announced, I have im- 
mediately tested it thoroughly, and have further 
made every allowable experiment suggested to my- 
self. 

There are certain difficulties connected with the 
Reproductive system that are very important, as 
affecting human health and happiness, but which 
are scarcely ever made the subjects of study by 
medical men at all — at least not in this country. 
The consequence is, that the treatment they receive 
is mostly empirical, and is liable to do harm as good. 
So evident is this, that many persons so afflicted 
never apply for medical assistance, but prefer to suffer 
on and not complain. 

This is particularly the case with many difficulties 
experienced by young persons, and with many trou- 
bles incident to marriage, such as Impotence and 
Sterility, aversion or indifference, and physical or 
moral ^^-suitability. 

In the old world there are men of the greatest 
eminence who devote their whole attention to those 
matters, and who are the alleviators of misery, and 
the dispensers of unexpected happiness to thousands. 

In this country there are but very few that have 
embraced this peculiar line of practice, and I have 
found the greatest want of information prevailing, 
even amongst medical men, respecting the means 
of relief that are really at our command. 



INTRODUCTORY AND 



In all probability many of the modes of practice, 
and many of the courses pointed out in this work, 
will be entirely new to thousands, and will give 
hope to many who had previously been sunk in 
despair. 

I am well aware that in presenting a work like 
this, I shall meet with some objections with the 
jealous, unreflecting and prejudiced; but I feel as- 
sured that any reasonable person, on due reflection 
will approve of it. 

That the afflictions described in this book, do 
exist, is unfortunately too true, and it therefore be- 
comes the duty of every one, as far as lies in his or 
her power, to alleviate them. 

This I am persuaded can be accomplished, to a 
great extent, by such information as I have here 
given, and I sincerely wish it may do as much good 
as I intended and desire it to do. 

Wo one who has not devoted years to the inves- 
tigation of the human system, the cause of sickness, 
the power of remedial agents, and who is not able to 
look beneath the surface and trace from apparent 
unimportant symptoms the true seat and cause of 
the difficulty, is capable of grappling with all forms 
of disease -and of fulfilling the high and holy duties 
of the physician. The responsibility which rests on 
him is a fearful one. It is no light thing to stand 
between health and disease, or as it were, between 



GENERAL REMARKS. 

life and death, to rekindle the flickering lamp, almost 
extinct — to arrest the downward course, and drive 
back that cold, shadowy form, whose awful presence 
is already blanching the cheek and chilling the 
blood. 

In addition to every subject relating directly and 
exclusively to the Male System, I have thought it 
necessary to give a general description of the Female 
System also, in order to explain more fully and 
clearly certain difficulties that could not be well un- 
derstood without such information. 

This description will be found to include the most 
recent information on these subjects, with several in- 
teresting discoveries of my own, and will therefore 
supply every item of information necessary to a 
general undr standing of the Generative System and 
its functions in both sexes. 

A great part of this information cannot be found 
in any other work in the English language, and is 
now for the first time laid before the public. 

Finally, I rely upon the calm judgment of the 
reader, for whom this volume is prepared, and to 
whom it is expressly sent, at his or her desire ; with 
the public, in this case, I have nothing to do — no 
apologies to make, and no favors to ask. 

Happy shall I be if any effort of mine shall be 
the means of diffusing a correct knowledge of the 
human system, " so fearfully and wonderfully made," 



CELIBACY. 



and of alleviating in the slightest degree the vast 
amount of human suffering. 



CELIBACY. 

Remarks to the Young of Both Sexes. 



The present subject-demands the attention of all ; 
especially the reader, for you, no doubt, are subject 
to the same passions, and impelled by the same de- 
sires, as the rest of mankind. 

I shall endeavor to throw the subject before you 
in as brief and comprehensive manner as possible, 
showing its true light and proper bearing. 

Celibacy, or Continence, is not only a freedom 
from the use of the sexual appetite, but an absolute 
withdrawal from all the pleasures of the consumma- 
tion of the act, together with a total abstinence of 
solitary indulgences. 

Every part of the human economy, be it muscle, 
nerve or bone, has its particular use ; and these uses 
have been established by the God of nature for the 
developement of that frame which he in his bounty 
has established. The productive organs have theirs, 
but it is not only for the propagation of the species : 
they afford an outlet for accumulated secretion — 
they assist in resolving the animal passions — they 



TO THE YOUNG OF BOTH SEXES. 

are the secret incentive to sexual love, and the bond 
of union between the sexes — they give an appetite, 
which, like hunger, must be appeased, or nature re- 
volts, and the harmony of society falls before the 
unrestrained fury of maniacal solicitude. 

Health, the source of all happiness — without the 
possession of which, the world with all its beauties 
would be, (for all we cared,) tenantless — materially 
rests upon a moderate and proper use of the copula- 
tive process. 

Entire Continence, (a rarity among mankind,) 
establishes in both sexes the most miserable perver- 
sion of body and mind. In man, we have instances 
recorded of mania, melancholy, apoplexy and dis- 
orders of the skin ; blindness, deafness and a host 
of evils, some greater and few less than those just 
penned. 

It is true, Continence is, as remarked, but seldom 
observed, especially in males, who being denied 
sexual commerce, are estranged by the dreadful 
habit of masturbation, and thereby in some measure, 
the enumerated maladies are avoided ; but as mas- 
turbation, like other vices, grows with unbounded 
speed, a train of ills, far more distressful, await the 
sufferer, who, in addition, becomes in the meridian 
of life, deprived of the very power he in youth was 
so improvident of. 

Continence in females, which all admit to be the 
i brightest ornament a woman possesses, is attended 



10 CELIBACY. 



with a poor requital ; and its prevalence is truly 
attested by the miseries of hysteria and other nervous 
derangements, that ptrvade the junior and elderly 
maiden branches of every family, and constitute so 
formidable an enemy to felicity. A wide field is 
open for comment on this subject, which is better 
adapted for the moralist than the physician. 

Continent persons but seldom attain old age; 
whereas, the married females, although exposed to 
the danger of pregnancy and delivery, live generally 
longer than those who are unmarried or chaste — 
and provident married men escape the ills and snares 
that beset "single blessedness" as it is called. 
Libertinism, on the other hand, in whatever way 
practised, is hurtful and destructive to long life. 

Continence may be a virtue, but it is not imposed 
where marriage is allowable ; and then if deviated 
from with moderation only, the greatest amount of 
heal tli and happiness may be elicited, and the proper 
end of it obtained. Matrimony, where succeeded 
by the birth of children, powerfully conduces to the 
health and happiness of woman. 

Many female diseases are relieved by marriage. 
Araenarrhoea and chlorassis, disordered conditions 
of the uterine functions, hysteria, scrofula, skin aifeo- 
tions, numerous nervous disorders, and many local 
complaints, yield as soon as pregnancy commences. 

Results should, however, be well weighed, before 
irrevocable steps are taken. There are many diseases 



TO THE YOUNG OF BOTH SEXES. 11 

of structural impediments opposed to the matri- 
monial contract. Malformation and mental imbecility 
should be held out as strong interdicts to the conjugal 
union. People ought not to many before manhood 
is well developed; the male at least 21 to 23 years 
of age, the female, 18 to 21. Precocious, or late 
marriages, are injurious to reproduction. 

Well regulated marriages contribute to the social 
and lasting happiness, and the prosperity of the 
nation at large ; but ill assorted ones — those where 
the peace of either is infringed by opposing temper, 
or by the after discovery of hitherto concealed physi- 
cal incapacities — present a scene of wretchedness 
and disappointment to which death itself were pre- 
ferable. 

These remarks might be considerably amplified, 
but enough has been said to induce those who ap- 
proach to manhood, to be provident of that which 
once lost, is, under all circumstances, difficult to 
regain; and those on the eve of embarking in the 
most binding and solemn obligation of all human 
contracts, marriage, to ponder well ere they com- 
promise the happiness of others, as well as them- 
selves, by engaging in a compact they may know 
themselves incapable of fulfilling, or of efficiently 
performing — one from which they cannot with honor 
retreat, and .one that, once sealed, demands a rigid 
compliance with its recognized duties. 



1 2 MARRIAGE. 



To sum up the present article, I would say, that 
self-indulgence, and excessive sexual cohabitation, 
are hurtful in the highest degree, and induce early 
impuissance, and bring down a load of mental and 
corporeal ailments. Premature marriages are de- 
structive to health and long life, and weak and sickly 
children are the general result where impregnation 
follows. Entire Continence was never ordained, 
and is alike productive of disease. Moderate copu- 
lation propagates the human kind, preserves health 
and promotes longevity, and the sexual capability is 
thereby retained to the latest verge of senility. 

It is unnatural and unjust for impuissant persons 
to intermarry with those who have healthy expecta- 
tions, and the power of enjoyment ; and it behooves 
all who have a doubt as to their own capacity, to 
have that doubt removed ; but if rendered evident, 
to abstain from shipwrecking their own happiness, or 
from occasioning disappointment to others. 



MARRIAGE. 
Excess of Sexual Indulgence, &c, &c. 



Marriage is certainly the greatest blessing ever 
bestowed upon man, and although there are some ill 
effects following the consummation of the marriage 



EXCESS OF SEXUAL INDULGENCE. 13 

ties, still it were more obedient to reason, for the 
perpetuation of the human family, for the comfort, 
health and well-being of society, that it should be 
preserved as the most holy and consecrated of all 
earthly ties. 

There is a marriage, true, sacred, holy; but a 
vast number of so-called marriages are false and in- 
fernal. " Whom God hath joined together, let not 
man put asunder," but, I ask is it right to keep 
together whom God hath put asunder? And 
whenever a mistake of this kind has been made, (as 
is too often the case,) the good of the individuals, 
and of the race, demands that it be corrected. 

If people who marry hastily must be punished, let 
it be in some way that will not affect their offspring, 
and remote posterity, as well as the whole social 
body to which they belong. 

The true marriage is not a trap in which people 
are caught, but it is a condition of mutual attraction 
in absolute freedom. 

Marriage, in a higher and purer sense, is the real 
union of two persons in mutual love. 

The highest banquet of nature — that of mutual 
love — is to be fully, yet rationally enjoyed, and not 
to be abused or exhausted. This subject is to be 
approached with delicacy, because many persons are 
under the impression that marriage sanctions a grati- 
fication of the passions to any extent that the charm 



14 MARRIAGE. 

of novelty, the fervor of affection, or vigor of consti- 
tution will permit — forgetting that to a certain 
extent the sexual "appetite grows what it feeds 
upon." 

But here, as in everything else in human life, 
prudence should be the guide, and moderation the 
practice. To eat, to drink, are. both necessities as 
well as the pleasures of nature ; yet who will deny 
that either eating or drinking to an intemperate 
excess is not injurious and even vicious or criminal ? 
After all, however, eating and drinking even in 
excess, supply nourishment to the body. 

But it is not so with indulging in sexnal inter- 
course to excess, for that abstracts the nourishment, 
draws out the juices more copiously than is intended 
or provided for by the animal economy of man, and 
produces a relaxation of the system, a debility of -the 
organs, with pain in the back, in the loin^s, and ex- 
treme langour; which symptoms, if not checked in 
time, soon develope the most disastrous results, not 
only upon inconsiderate parents, but also upon their 
progeny. 

Weakness and imbecility are frequently derived 
from these causes, and entailed upon children. 

With men, especially if very young, and still more 
especially if old men, the result of excessive indul- 
gence in sexual intercourse, is physical debility, 
sometimes mental weakness also, with all their 
numerous train of ills ; while of the most unhappy 



EXCESS OF SEXUAL INDULGENCE. 15 

consequences of weakness thus produced, is an im- 
potency, or rather an inability to perform the 
generative act. 

How true the adage that " healthy parents, beget 
r/ealthy children." 

In woman, excessive indulgence is apt to produce 
weakness ; subject to pain in the back and loins — 
after victims to the spinal disease, to say little of the 
inflammation of the kidneys and womb. Their 
nerves, too, are seriously affected. They feel pal- 
pitations of the heart, hysterics and a tremulousness 
of the whole system, combined with groundless pre- 
sentiments and anticipations of coming, though but 
imaginary misfortune, similar to the effects produced 
by self-pollution. 

Such patients cannot too speedily apply tor 
advice — particularly when they bear in mind that 
all the stamina of their constitutions might probably 
be required for child-birth — and that the alterna- 
tives otherwise presented, are those of sterility or 
premature labor. 

In these remarks, excess of indulgence only has 
been contemplated as regards the married; and as 
the results are simply those of an over-acted nature, 
the nerves may be restrung, the strength maybe 
revived and the spirits once more exhilarated by 
medical skill. 

"We need not wonder, as we look around upon 
society and see so many rash and foolish marriages, 



16 MARRIAGE. 

that there are so many still-born children ; that so 
many of the rising generation are pale, sickly and 
feeble ; that so much vice abounds ; that the peace 
of so many families is wrecked; that so many 
children a*e left motherless — and that so many 
young mothers are placed beneath the green sod. 

What else could we expect from this violation of 
the laws of their being, from this offering them- 
selves on the altar of fashion and blind passion. 

The gloomy records of the grave show that 
nearly one half of those born into the world, perish 
before reaching the age of five, and one third be- 
fore the age of three years. 

How very few live to a good old age ; and how 
mighty that throng from the ranks of infancy, 
childhood and middle age, who follow each other 
in rapid succession into the realms of death. From 
these periods of life, death r.eaps his richest harvest. 

Among those who bright and joyous with the 
elasticity of youth and vigor of manhood, whose 
brilliant aspirations seem about being realized, death 
scatters his shafts, and the cold waters of that river 
which lies between us and the grave, freezes with 
its icy current the warm pulsations of the young 
heart, and bears onward on its dark bosom all there 
is of life, to the vast ocean of eternity. 



DERANGEMENTS OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 17 



VENERIAL DISEASES. 

Malformations and Derangements of the 
Human System. 



It -is of the greatest importance that every one 
should know sufficient of themselves to be able to 
detect the various derangements of his or her 
system at the earliest possible moment, aud should 
also know the proper steps to take for their preven- 
tion and removal. 

He who knows nothing of this kind and goes to 
a physician only when he feels pain or incon- 
venience, will often find that he cannot be benefited, " 
the favorable moment having gone by, unknown to 
him through his ignorance. 

Some of the most dangerous and severe diseases 
of the Testes, for instance, cause neither pain or in- 
convenience till they are considerably advanced. I 
shall therefore give the general indications, that can 
be relied upon, of each disease. 

Having as many as fifty patients constantly under 
my charge, affected with venerial and other infec- 
tious diseases — the majority of whom have been 
under the treatment of other physicians — I have 
devoted a sufficient space to guide those who are 



18 DERANGEMENTS OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 



unfortunate enough to be afflicted with such horrible 
diseases, to a rapid and permanent cure. 

The ignorance of the medical profession of the 
proper treatment, the awful consequences resulting 
from the treatment of Quacks, and the various 
humbug cure-all medicines so largely advertised y 
are truly beyond the comprehension of those who 
have not the opportunities of knowing its vast extent. 

My practice is constantly revealing to me the 
great extent of constitutional disease, arising from 
neglect or maltreatment of Syphilis. Any physi- 
cian who will investigate the subject, will be aston- 
ished at the mass of human suffering which he can 
trace to a Venerial origin, although its primary 
symptoms may have been apparently eradicated 
from the system for many years. Some are indis- 
creet enough to allow delicacy or shame to prevent 
them from applying to the proper physician* until 
the poison has acquired such virulence as to justly 
alarm them. They then frequently apply to some 
unskillful practitioner, who may temporily arrest the 
external symptoms, and discharge them cured. 
Matters will thus go on until the malady becomes 
constitutional, when the patients are at last com- 
pelled to place themselves under the treatment of 
those who, at an earlier period, could have preserved 
their system untainted, and their bodies uninjured, 
by the ravages of this most insiduous disease. 



SYPHILIS. 19 



SYPHILIS, OR POX. 



Syphils is a virulent affection, the essential 
character of which is its dependence upon a special 
cause, or a distinct virus. 

There are three forms in which the disease mani- 
fests itself. The first stage includes primary symp- 
toms, as chancre, (a pimple or ulcer,) the specific 
cause, from the special virus, or poisonous matter 
which has been deposited. 

The second stage embraces constitutional symp- 
toms, which follow as a consequence of absorption 
of the virus, and which is hereditary, and in my 
opinion, capable of transmission by inoculation. 
Example : various affections of the skin, and mucous 
membranes, enlargement of the glands, scrofula, etc. 

The third stage comprehends Tertiary symptoms, 
which can be transmitted and is hereditary. This 
is the stage that principally affects the bones. 

The destructive effects of the venerial disease is 
becoming so generally known, that it is unnecessary 
to describe them minutely, though there are many 
persons even yet, who do not estimate the full 
extent of their direful consequences upon health, 
reproduction and longevity 



20 SYPHILIS. 

A close and extensive observation of an extensive 
private practice for many years, has enabled me to 
bring the treatment of the various forms of these 
formidable maladies, almost to perfection. 

My present purpose is not to give a minute ac- 
count of all the ravages of these horribly disgusting 
and malignant complaints, I shall confine myself, 
therefore, to a few general remarks on their primary 
and constitutional effects on the human body in the 
different conditions of life. 

The idea that mercury is a specific in this disease, 
is utterly exploded. On the other hand, it is widely 
known that mercurial treatment produces conse- 
quences which cannot be distinguished from syphilis. 

In the treatment of this disease, we must not 
forget that we have a real virus to deal with — a 
poison of no ordinary kind, but one which disorgan- 
izes wherever it goes, until it either loses its force, 
or the system becomes habituated to it, as it does to 
malaria and other morbific agencies. 

The prevention of this disease is a matter of great 
importance to individuals and communities. ' Some 
enlightened governments of Europe have made 
efforts at its eradication, but such efforts must be 
more general to be effectual. In many cities of the 
continent, all prostitutes are registered and put 
under the supervision and protection of the police. 
They are obliged to submit to a periodical medical 
examination, and if found diseased, are sent to the 



SYPHILIS. 21 

hospital. This makes them careful, and gives a 
degree of protection; but in England and the 
United States, all this is wanting. Our munici- 
palities can protect men from drinking a glass of 
brandy, but whole generations may perish of syphilis 
and its resulting scrofula. 

Primary Symptoms. 

The first appearance of Syphilis, is a small vesicle 
on the glands, prepuce, or other parts of the penis 
and testicles of the male, or on the labia, vagina, or 
uterus of the female. This is called a Chancre. 
It arises from the application of the syphilitic virus, 
on a delicate or abrased surface, from which it is 
speedily absorbed, in the same manner as the virus of 
a rabid animal, the virus of small-pox, or of vacina- 
tion — only not in so rapid a manner as conveyed 
into the body. The whole system becomes sooner 
or later infected, and a vast number of diseases are 
developed. -Amongst these are Buboes, or Venerial 
Swellings of the glands of the groin, ulceration of 
the throat, a vast number of cutaneous eruptions, 
which at first are generally of a copper color, though 
they may assume the natural appearance of ordinary 
skin diseases. 

These symptoms are accompanied or succeeded 
by pains of the shin and other long bones, as the 
arms, and even the bones of the head, which are 
greatly aggravated at night, so as to prevent sleep, 



22 SYPHILIS. 

destroy the appetite and general health, and are 
often followed by inflammation and swelling of 
some portions of the periosteum, most commonly on 
the tibia or shin, instep, back, or palm of the hand. 
Bones thus affected are termed Nodes. 

In numerous cases there is a partial or total de- 
struction of the virile members, and of the female 
genitals, of the palate, cartilages of the nose, warts, 
vegitations or excrescences on the gians penis or 
labia pudendi, various abscesses, pustules and fissures 
in different parts of the body; there are nervous, 
neuralgic and rheumatic pains, falling off of the 
hair, phthisics, and very frequently death closes the 
scene. Vision is often destroyed, there are severe 
pains in the bones, enlargement, termed exostosis, 
and sometimes carries on mortification, ai*d at other 
times brittleness of the bones, which cause them to 
fracture on the slightest occasion. 

The ravages of Syphilis are often hideous, and 
when the destruction has become extensive, is some- 
times incurable. 

In other cases supposed to be cured, the disease 
remains latent in the constitution for many years, is 
transmitted to the offspring, or destroys the foetus in 
the womb. Sometimes it causes Sterility 

We often observe this disease inducing infecun- 
dity and death. In some cases, there is ulceration 
of the parts between the bladder and vagina, and 



SYPHILIS. 23 

the latter and the rectum, so that the urine and 
foeces are evacuated through the vagina, forming a 
most loathsome and painful disease. 

When the venerial contamination of either parent 
is very considerable, though not apparent, the infant 
will be bom dead, between the seventh and eighth 
month, in a state of putrification. It often happens 
that women have six or eight infants in rapid suc- 
cession which are born dead and decomposed in 
consequence of partially cured syphilis in the father. 

A man who has no external sign of syphilis, and 
who has been declared cured by his physician, and 
advised to marry, may contaminate his wife and 
offspring in various degrees, £o that his infant may 
be born feeble, or covered around the genitals or 
mouth with red or dark, copper-colored eruptions. 
This may appear soon after birth. 

In primary Syphilis of the mother, the infant 
will be liable to come in contact with the venerial 
sore, which would cause a chancre on the iip, eye, 
etc. A sore on the iip of the infant would infect 
the nipple of a healthy woman, who would then 
infect every one touching it. 

Gonorrhoeal ophthalmia will be contracted by 
the infant during its nativity, if the mother is in- 
fected, and will lose its sight in a few days, unless 
proper and prompt treatment is adopted. 



24 SYPHILIS. 

A female can, and should be cured of gonorrhoea 
when pregnant, so that the infant will not be 
affected, but the foetus cannot be purified of here- 
ditary syphilis. The mother, however, should be 
treated without delay. 

A man may be relieved of gonorrhoea, and be 
afflicted in no other way, excepting a slight gleet, 
or a thin, watery discharge from the urethra, for 
years, but if he gets married, or cohabits with a 
healthy woman, he will infect her. The frequency 
of venerial complaints is much greater than the 
public imagine. 

Young and diffident persons often conceal their 
situation, until their disease becomes alarming, and 
then the sufferer will probably apply for advice to 
advertising empirics, or use quack medicines, which 
in nine cases out of ten, allow the disease to poison 
or destroy the constitution. 

The proper advice should be sought, and medi- 
cines taken on the first appearance of the disease, if 
the afflicted would save themselves from suffering. 

Transmission of the Venerial Virus. 

The venerial virus may be transmitted in a few 
hours, and not in many days. When it is not 
absorbed at the time of coition, immediate washing 
of the parts will often prevent infection. I say if it 
is not absorbed at the time of coition. What I 
mean by this is, that if the penis is washed before 



SYPHILIS. 25 

erection goes down, infection will often be prevented ; 
but if the poisonous matter has entered the pores 
of the skin, which are opened in full erection, and 
close, shutting it in as the erection goes down, it 
cannot but be plain to every one, that it is utterly 
impossible then to prevent the developement of the 
disease. 

The quack washes, therefore, to be used as an 
injection for the urethra, or external lotion, are mere 
humbugs, and worse than useless. Wearing a cover- 
ing for the penis, is the only thing that will prevent 
inoculation. 

As soon as a pimple or little blister has formed, 
after an impure connection, on any part of the 
genitals, it should be properly treated at once. 

Secondary, or Constitutional Syphilis. 

Secondary symptoms are those changes which 
occur in consequence of the admission of the vene- 
rial poison into the system, or common circulation at 
large. Like gonorrhoea and primary syphilis, it is 
a very complicated complaint. Secondary symp- 
toms are admitted to occur without being preceded 
by any primary form, as, for instance, by imme- 
diate absorption, unattended with irritation, which 
accompanies chancre, or attendant upon bubo. But 
w'here one secondary affection arises without the 
primary, at least many hundred arise subsequent to 



26 SYPHILIS* 

it ; and unless, in the latter instance, treatment, and 
vigilant too, is adopted, not one in a hundred escapes 
them. 

When venerial ulcers or eruptions appear, after 
a primary sore on any part of the body — as the 
face, throat, chest, back, thighs, etc — the constitu- 
tion is affected, and judicious treatment must be 
employed at once, and continued for months after all 
symptoms have disappeared. The actual length of 
time necessary to continue the use of medicines, 
varies in different persons, and no one who has not 
experienced in this class of diseases, can safely give 
advice regarding it. 

It is important to distinguish pseudo-syphilis from 
the real disease, which is often a very difficult 
matter. 

Persons may have secondary syphilis and not 
have buboes. The symptoms of such a constitu- 
tional affection may. show themselves in eight days, 
and may not in years, as I have stated. The term 
secondary, is used to designate the morbid phe- 
nomena which appear on the skin, mucous-membrane, 
eye, testicles, etc. 

When the skin is at first affected it may appear 
like measels. The spots, however, will soon lose 
their rosy color and assume a coppery hue, or they 
may disappear altogether. It may first appear in 
little pimples, or the pustular form, which is generally 



SYPHILIS. 27 



very chronic in its course. This form affects the 
health more than any other. There is another 
variety which affects the scalp. A crust is formed 
around the roots of the hair, which, as often as 
rubbed off, is reproduced by a thick, viscid secretion, 
matting the hair together. It is usually confined 
to a few spots, but the whole hair becomes affected, 
loses its lustre, gets dry, falls off, and the patient 
may become bald. The glands in the neck may 
often be enlarged ; it often accompanies other forms 
of secondary syphilis* 

The tuberculer form may be little hard tumors, 
or become ulcers. It may often be seen on the 
face, nose, or at the* angles of the mouth ; around 
the arms, labia, groin, scrotum, lining of the prepuce, 
between the toes, and in the arm pits. 

When ulcerated, it secretes an acrid matter, which 
causes irritation, and produces an offensive odor; it 
may remain stationary or rapidly extend. 

Syphilitic Affeqtions of the Mucous- 
Membrane, Mouth and Throat. 

Every portion of the mucous-membrane which 
the eye can observe, is like, the skin, subject to be- 
come the seat of secondary symptoms, as the lips, 
inside of the cheeks, tongue, fauces and throat ; not 
only the margin of the arms, but the inside of the 
intestine itself, also the lining of the prepuce. The 



28 SYPHILIS. 

vulva, vagina and neck of the womb are also affected. 
The throat, from its functions, is frequently exposed 
to changes of temperature, and feels the effect of all 
excesses. 

A primary as well as secondary affection of the 
mouth and throat may exist. * The symptoms of 
these affections, in the commencement, are only 
slight irritation or swelling, but if inflammation 
follows, the usual symptoms of sore throat will 
occur, and the general symptoms may be severe. 

Tertiary Syphilitic Affections. 

This is a more advanced form of syphilis, than 
any we have before mentioned. Most frequently 
(in shattered constitutions, or in persons reduced by 
the combined effects of dissipation and bad treat- 
ment,) some pain is felt in the throat or tongue ; 
there is a thickness of the speech, which, at first, 
excites but little attention, but it will soon expose a 
tawny-colored ulcer, which may expose the bone, or 
the palate bone may be destroyed, and a communi- 
cation exist between the mouth and nose. The 
whole back upper part of the mouth will be more or 
less affected. 

Not unfrequently pustular eruptions, forming 
scabs, appear on the extremities, and the general 
emaciation continues. The countenance has now a 
cadaverous appearance, and the pulse bespeaks the 
general feebleness of the patient, who, if not relieved 



SYPHILIS. 29 



by proper treatment, sinks under the combined 
effects of colliquative sweats, diarrhoea, great sup- 
purtation, and want of sleep from severe pain in the 
bones and joints, and loss of appetite. 

Such is a concise sketch of the most frequent 
form of tertiary syphilitic sore tbroat, with its ao 
companying symptoms, not to be mistaken when 
once witnessed. 

Sometimes little, hard tumors, varying in size 
from that of a pea to a hazel-nut, which, if not 
properly treated, will soon proceed so that the 
speech wili very much be interfered with. 

Syphilitic Affections of the Eye. 

The eye, like the skin and throat, may become 
affected by syphilis in each of its different forms — 
primary, secondary and tertiary. 

The importance of the organ, and the rapidity 
with which the disease can destroy the tissues com- 
posing it, deserve the particular attention of the 
reader. 

This affection is ushered in by considerable consti- 
tutional disturbance; headache, inability to sleep 
from constant pain over the brow, which is aggra- 
vated in damp weather, and in the evening. 

The eye cannot bear a strong light, and there is 
usually more or less redness of the ball or lids. It 
may appear on the eye-lids in the form of ulcerations. 



30 SYPHILIS. 

In a case of direct inoculation of the eye by the 
primary syphilitic virus, which often happens by 
carlessness in not keeping the hands washed clean, 
or wiping them on a cloth which should be destroyed 
after such use. 

The affection will present nearly the same appear- 
ance and condition as a chancre on the genitals, only 
the discharge from the sore will rapidly spread over 
the whole eye, and if the patient is not careful while 
lying down or asleep, it will come in contact with 
the other eye, and both will be destroyed, if the 
disease is not immediately checked. 

Syphilitic Affections of the Testicles. 

Some months after the primary symptoms have 
occurred, the patient will complain of vague pains 
in one or both testicles, particularly felt towards 
night, and which shoot upward toward the loin. 

In some instances no pain is felt, and the patient 
is surprised at finding one or both testicles gradually 
enlarging, with a very considerable inconvenience 
from their weight. 

The functions of the organs will become impaired 
if the disease is not speedily wrested, and the cor- 
rect treatment followed up for months, so that the 
disease will be thoroughly eradicated from the 
system. 



SYPHILIS. 31 

Tertiary Syphilis, 

The constitutional affection is included under the 
name of Nodes, inflammation of the periosteum, 
exostosis, caries and tubercles. 

Its destructions are principally confined to the 
"bones. When the cellular tissue is affected, small 
tumors will first be observed, either isolated or occur- 
ing on various parts of the body. They may not 
be noticed much for some months. They may be 
hard and unattached to the adjacent structures. It 
may make its way to the surface, ulcerate, and 
heal, but no sooner has one disappeared than another 
shows itself. 

Tertiary Symptoms as they occur in 
the Osseous System. 

The first symptoms of the affections of the bones, 
consists in pains, at first vague, or like rheumatism. 
They will generally become fixed to particular bones 
sooner or later, and become more severe at night. 
There are three varieties of Periostitis. 

Ostitis shows the same preference for particular 
regions. After having existed a long time without 
giving other indications of its presence than pain, 
the swelling alternatively gives rise to betray itself 
externally. In other cases it may give rise to 
parenchymatous or hyperostoses 



32 SYPHILIS. 

Enough., I think, has been shown to convince the 
most unthinking individual who may peruse these 
pages, of the evils and miseries attendant upon 
those who have contracted this horrible disease ; I 
shall,, therefore, conclude the subject with a few 
general remarks, besides introducing to the reader a 
very few of the many cases that have recently been 
and are now under my charge. 

The origin of this disease is involved in most pro- 
found obscurity, 

A glance at the original condition of society 
would seem to convince us at once that, notwith- 
standing the early history of the disease may be 
lost in the night of time, it is very probable that 
this malady existed from a period occuring very soon 
after the world became thickly peopled. 

The same causes which now produce it, operated 
then in greater force ; for men living almost in a 
state of nature, did not hesitate to obey blindly, this 
most imperious of all their appetites. 

The abuse of this desire and a neglect of cleanli- 
ness, must have frequently led to affections of the 
genital organs and skin, modified, indeed, by the 
more simple mode of life then prevalent. 

This state of simplicity was not of long duration, 
and as men increased in number and advanced in 
civilazation, a wish for more stimulating food and a 
more luxurious style of life gradually crept in. An 



SYPHILIS. 33 

excess of population drove the surplus to seek their 
fortunes in other climes of various temperature, and 
thus abandoning the prime val innocence of our race, 
they created fictitious wants, which were gratified 
often, only at the expense of life and death. 



CASES OF SYPHILIS. 

Extracts from Correspondence, &c. 



I trust I shall not be considered egotistical, in 
laying before the reader a few testimonials now in 
my possession, showing the success which has at- 
tended my treatment in this branch of venerial 



Hamilton, C. W., June 20, 1854. 
Dr. Lispenard : 

Dear Sir, — It is with no small degree of pleasure 
that I now bear testimony to your high private 
character and standing ; and in a professional point 
of view, I am proud to acknowledge your skill and 
treatment of syphilitic diseases, as well as the 
various complaints of females. 

I say this not to flatter, but because I have fre- 
quently seen the happy results of your superior 



34 CASES OF SYPHILIS. 



treatment in the worst, most unpromising cases; 
for instance, my own, which has been regarded as 
incurable by physicians in this city. 

Most Respectfully Yours, 

H. S t D . 



Erie, Pa., June 23, 1854. 
Dr. Lispenard : 

Dear Sir, — Your very extraordinary success in 
syphilis first led me to cultivate your acquaintance 
and friendship, nor shall I ever regret it. 1 am now 
happy to inform you that I consider myself com- 
pletely restored to health, for which I shall be ever 
grateful to you. I have strictly followed your 
directions as regards to taking medicine, diet, exer- 
cise, &c. I hope to have the pleasure of thanking 
you personally soon. Yours, 

Geo. W. B . 



M- , K Y. June 20, 1854. 

Dr. Lispenard : 

I consider it my duty to inform you that under 
your treatment I am once more healthy, and I shall 
recommend all others of my acquaintance, who have 
been unfortunate like myself, to you. I shall visit 
the city next week and will call on you, and let you 
judge for yourself. 

Respectfully Yours, 

C . 



CASES OF SYPHILIS. 35 

This patient had contracted chancres on the 
glands, about six weeks before the date of his letter. 
He immediately applied to me, and the success that 
attended my treatment is shown in his letter. His 
age is 23 years. 



Cleveland, July 1st, 1854. 
W. C. Lispenard, M. D. : 

Dear Sir, — In accordance with your request, 1 
write you in regard to my general health. It is 
with great satisfaction that I inform you that it is 
good, and I now consider myself almost, if not 
quite, recovered. The last package of medicine 
you sent me is not entirely exhausted, but I shall 
continue to take it while it lasts. 
Yours, &c, 

H. H. L . 

This patient, aged 20, applied to me about the 
first of June, a few days after an impure connexion. 
For some three or four days he fejt some itching at 
the end of the penis, (he had a natural phymosis,) 
perceived a slight swelling, and felt a smarting on 
the glands during the emission of his urine. At 
length an abundant discharge took place upon the 
opening of the prepuce. 

The reader will perceive that these cases are of a 
recent date. I shall take pleasure in exhibiting to 
those who may desire numerous testimonials in my 



36 TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS. 

possession, showing with what success ray treatment 
has been attended. 



TREATMENT. 



I herewith subjoin information of invaluable 
benefit to the patient, if observed in the early stages 
of syphilis. 

As soon as any of the symptoms already men- 
tioned are perceived, after suspected coition, the 
patient should immediately, if there is a chancre, 
make the following application : 

j R. Nitrate of Silver, one scruple. 
( Distilled Water, one ounce. 

Shake until dissolved, and apply with a camel's 
hair pencil, or small pieces of lint, wet with the 
wash. 

or the following: 

j Sulphate of Copper, 20 grains. 
( Distilled Water, one ounce. 

Apply as before directed. On the first appearance 
of the chancre, pay particular attention to the diet, 
regulating according to the strength of the patient. 

With respect to the treatment of the ulcer, 
characterized by its circular form, excavated surface 
and hardened base, the plan I most invariably adopt 



TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS. 37 



is, immediately on its appearance, before the pimple 
is broken, to apply a stronger solution than before 
used, viz: 

j R. Nitrate of Silver, one dram. 
( Distilled Water, one ounce. 

Apply two or three times a day with a fine hair 
pencil. 

OR TEE FOLLOWING: 

( Chloride of Soda, two ounces. 
"I Rose Water, four ounces. 

But little internal treatment is necessary in mild 

of syphilis. The bowels should be kept in a 

and laxative state. 

If the disease should not yield to this mild course 

of treatment, and ail vest ige of the same be gone in 

a few days, the patient should immediately consult 

some Physician or Surgeon, that the chancres or 

ulcers may be examined with an experienced and 

practiced eye, and such treatment, both internal and 

local, be resorted to as will effect in a very few days 

that which the patient most desires, viz : a safe, 

mt and permanent cure. 

"While treating this subject, it will be observed that 

we have made no especial reference to the female. 

There is no necessity for any difference in treatment, 

with the exception of the mode of examination and 

the application of remedies. Those afflicted should 

do time in consulting a person whose office is 



GONORRHOEA. 

supplied, and whose advantages for using the instru- 
ments necessary, are such as that, under his kind 
care and medical direction, their disease can be 
arrested, their health restored, and with the full 
knowledge that they again rejoice in good health, 
resolve to go and sin no more. 



GONORRHOEA. 



Gonorrhoea (vulgarly called Clap,) is an infec- 
tious disease, and is seated in the urinary passage, 
from the orifice of which there issues a discharge of 
matter, attended more or less with pain and heat 
in making water. 

There is no outward sore or ulcer in Gonorrhoea ; 
neither, indeed, is there any within the passage. 

If it were possible to take an inside view of the 
urinary passage, nothing would be seen there but 
redness and a little swelling; and the discharge, 
whether much or little, would be seen issuing from 
the red and swollen state of the membrane which 
lines it, just as matter is seen issuing from an in- 
flamed eye. 

Yenerial disease, on the contrary, is not seated in 
the urinary passage, but externally — on some part 
or other of the penis or genital organs — and con- 
sists in ulcers or sores, as I have already described. 



GONORRHOEA. 39 

Gonorrhoea, then, consists in a discharge from 
the urinary passage, attended more or less with 
pain and heat in making water, without ulceration 
or sores. 

~No one, it is presumed, can possibly mistake these 
two diseases, and it will, therefore, now be proper to 
describe particularly how a Gonorrhoea commences 
and proceeds. 

I would first say a word or two respecting' the 
time when a Gonorrhoea first appears after an ex- 
posure to it; for many persons wrong themselves 
with dread and apprehension long after there is the 
least occasion for it. To the question, then, so often 
put — When may I consider I am safe ? I reply : 
After the seventh day, if none of the symptoms 
presently to be enumerated should appear, you may 
consider you have escaped — that you are safe. 

It is true, there is some difference in the time of 
its appearing in different individuals. Some have 
said, for instance, that they have known it to appear 
in twenty-four hours, and others that it has been de- 
layed for ten, or even fourteen days. I very much 
doubt whether it ever appears at this early period. 

Instances of this kind which have occured to me, 
have always proved to be cases of Strictures, not of 
Gonorrhoea; the discharge being the immediate 
consequences of an irritation of the pre-existing 



40 GONORRHOEA. 

disease, while those delayed for fourteen days are 
very rare. 

A person having been exposed to this infectious 
malady,' at some period within seven days, if he 
should have taken the disorder, (which w r e will sup- 
pose to be the first attack,) will feel a little pain and 
heat in making water. This leads him to make an 
examination, when he will find the orifice of the 
urinary passage looks a little redder than usual, its 
lips rather pouting and swollen, and on squeezing it, 
an uncommon dampness or thin mucous will be seen. 
In the course of a few hours, or by the next day, 
the pain and heat in making water will be exceed- 
ingly great, amounting to a sensation of absolute 
scalding. At this time the discharge turns to a 
yellowish color, and instead of being about as thick 
as cream, is thin and watery. 

Under these circumstances there is also a painful 
sensation along the whole length of the urinary 
passage, and the penis swells and is subject to 
attacks of frequent and very painful erection. 

A Gonorrhoea always begins with pain and in- 
flammation, more or less, which, after a little while, 
abates or subsides entirely. 

In speaking of a Gonorrhoea, therefore, we call 
the beginning of it, its Inflammatory stage. But 
the degree of pain and inflammation at the begin- 
ning of Gonorrhoea, differs exceedingly in different 



GONORRHOEA. 41 

persons; some will have so little as scarcely to com- 
plain at all, while others must suffer severely. As 
a general rule, however, the oftener it is had, the 
less inflammatory is its attack, so that those who 
have had Gonorrhoea several times may actually 
experience no pain at all; the only notice of its 
existence being the appearance of the matter on the 
clothes. But in every case, after a time, this in- 
flammation subsides, whether anything is done for 
it or not, .but the patient is not free from disease. 
This is the first or inflammatory stage. 

The seat of Gonorrhoea, at its commencement, is 
just within the orifice of the urinary passage, this 
necessarily being the part that first comes in con- 
tact with the infectious matter — that first receives 
the inoculation, But the disease is not long con- 
fined to this spot ; its tendency is to progress further 
and further along the urinary canal, until it reaches 
very near its other end, and there it settles down. 

How long a time it may occupy in its progress 
through the urinary canal, is uncertain, and diners 
in different individuals and under different circum- 
stances of constitution, mode of life, &c. 

The painful inflammatory symptoms, however, 
seem principally to attend the invasion of the 
disease, and, most of all, its effect upon the first 
portion of the passage. When these are subsided, 



GONORRHOEA. 



at any rate, we may consider it has advanced to its 
ordinary distance. 

After some time, or if there has been much pain, 
after this has subsided, another stage of the disease 
commences. This stage consists simply of an in- 
fectious discbarge, issuing from the orifice of the 
penis, with little or no pain. 

This discharge is more or less in quantity in 
different persons, and is much increased by whatever 
may excite, or by irregularities of any kind. This, 
especially when the discharge is slight and unattend- 
ed with pain, is what is properly called "Gleet" 
and when once suffered to commence, there is no 
exactly telling how long it may continue, or how it 
is to terminate; but let it ever be remembered, that 
as long as this discharge Continues, the disease may 
be communicated by infection. This is the second 
or Chronic stage of Gonorrhoea. 

Thus far I have spoken of a Gonorhoea in its 
simple form, and have mentioned those symptoms 
only which aro essential to it, and which are never 
absent Oom it. There are, however, other symptoms 
which are only sometimes present, which may and 
may not exist, but which when they do occur, (and 
potlio of them generally do,) form the severest part 
of tho complaint, and call for . immediate and 
peculiar remedies. 

In fact, it is for tho want of knowing something 
of the nature of those accidental si/mptows, that j 



GONORRHOEA. 43 

Gonorrhoea assumes its most distressing character, 
and leads to the worst consequences. 

Those circumstances which may or may not 
occur in Gonorrhoea, and are called accidental symp- 
toms, are the following : — A swelling of the prepuce 
or foreskin; swelling of the glands in the groin; 
very painful erections of the penis; and swelling 
of the testicles. 

The nature of these, therefore, is fully explained. 

Swelling of the Prepuce or Foreskin. 

This is the effect of inflammation, with a full and 
irritable disposition, or irregularity of habits gives to. 

The structure of the skin which covers the head 
of the penis, (the prepuce,) is very loose and cellular, 
so that when the inflammation happens to be high, 
this structure fills with the thin and colorless part 
of the blood, which causes it to swell. 

Sometimes the skin is badly swollen, and looks 
of a bluish white color, being half transparent, and 
is apt to create alarm ; and, indeed, there is seme- 
times reason for alarm, for when this swelling is 
considerable, the skin cannot be pushed back over 
the penis, or if pushed back, cannot be brought for- 
ward again so as to cover it. 

There is not so much danger in this swelling 
itself as in the cousequences of it; for if the skin 
cannot be pushed back, the matter under it accuinu- 



44 GONORRHOEA. 

lates and becomes acrid and irritating, and you 
cannot avail yourself of cleanliness, which is always 
of importance. 

On the other hand, if you cannot bring the pre- 
puce forward, it produces danger by acting as though 
a string were tied around the head of the penis 
preventing the return of the blood, so that it swells 
prodigiously, looks blackish, and sometimes even 
mortifies and comes away. This, however, can 
always be prevented by proper management. 

It is called a Phymosis when the skin cannot be 
drawn back from over the gland or head of the 
penis, as in the former instance; and a Paraphy^ 
mosis when being back, it cannot be brought fur- 
ward again over the gland. 

Swelling of the Glands in the Groin. 

This is the result of inflammation spreading to 
the glandular bodies, situated in the groin. 

In every part of the body there are certain little 
vessels called absorbents, and these, in their course, 
run through absorbent glands, of which there are 
several in each groin. Inflammation in the urinary 
passage is communicated through the medium of 
tiiese vessels to the glands in the groin, which be- 
comes painful and enlarged in consequence. 

It is worthy of remark, that in (Gonorrhoea, 
glandular swellings seldom go on to form an actual 



GONORRHOEA. 45 

bubo, (which is an abcess in the groin,) as they are 
apt to do in venerial diseases. 

Frequent and very Painful Erections 
of the Penis. 

This is a distressing and tedious symptom, the 
nature of which I will endeavor to explain ; in fact 
it is nothing more than inflammation extending from 
the lining membrane of the urinary passage into 
the substance and body of the penis, and it seldom 
occurs unless the inflammation runs high. 

The structure of the penis is remarkable and is 
made up of large cells, into which the blood is de- 
termined under certain circumstances of excitement, 
and when these are filled, the penis is erect. 

The effect of the inflammation having passed 
into the walls or substance of the urinary passage, 
and into the cellular tissue, is to deprive these parts 
of their natural elastic, yielding nature; they be- 
come thickened, tense, unyielding, so when the 
blood rushes in, (as w r e know it does under sexual 
and other kinds of excitement, producing enlarge- 
ment and elongation of the penis,) these parts resist, 
are stretched with difficulty, or even torn, giving 
excessive pain. 

Sometimes, thus thickened and altered by in- 
flammation, they will hardly yield at all; the figure 
of the penis is then more or less crooked, as we 



46 GONORRHOEA. 

often see — the pain accompanying this is terrible. 
It is what is called Chordee. 

Swelling of the Testicle. 

The first thing which precedes a swelling of the 
testicle, is a sense of pain running down the whole 
length of the urinary passage, accompanied with a 
feeling as if a drop or two of urine were remaining 
in the passage after making water. 

To this there succeeds a dull pain in the groin, 
going on to affect the testicle, which presently feels 
heavy and very tender to the touch ; or the pain 
and tenderness of the testicle may set in at once 
without any of these premonitory symptoms. No 
time should be lost. It should be attacked imme- 
diately, in order, if possible, to arrest the inflamma- 
tion before fully developed. 

The seat of the disease is not in the body of the 
testicle itself, but in a small organ attached to it, 
which, in a healthy state, can, by carefully feeling 
around the testicle, be discovered at its lower and 
back part ; it is small, loose and feels like a collection 
of fibres. 

When attacked by inflammation, it becomes ex- 
quisitely sensi tive and painful to the touch, and 
swells rapidly, becoming at the same time hard and 
solid ; it will then often exceed in bulk the testicle 
itself. 



GONORRHOEA. AH 



Inflammation of the Bladder. 

This is a consequence of the extension of the 
primary gonorrhoea! inflammation, to the neck of 
the bladder. This part is naturally very sensitive, 
and when inflamed, becomes so irritable that the 
contact of the urine, or slight distention of the blad- 
der, gives rise to pain and desire to urinate. It 
may be slight, causing merely the inconvenience of 
too frequent a desire to pass the urine, with difficulty 
of restraining it, or the bladder may empty itself 
every five or ten minutes, passing only an ounce or 
two of high colored urine, with great pain, and 
followed by blood, the desire to urinate remaining 
unrelieved. It is then attended with fever. 

This affection oftener appears in a mild and sub- 
acute form, but may set in with great severity, and 
is then a most harrassing and painful addition to 
Gonorrhoea ; it is, therefore, prudent to use means 
for its prevention or cure immediately. 

This, then, is all that need be stated on the nature, 
symptoms and progress of Gonorrhoea. 

With regard to ife consequences, they are, indeed, 
severe and painful ; but there are other remote con- 
quences which are of infinitely more importance, so 
much so as to demand seperate and lengthened 
attention. 



48 GONORRHOEA. 

The consequences to which I allude are Gleet 
and Stricture, which latter, growing as certainly 
out of Gleet, as Gleet does out of Gonorrhoea, 
again gives occasion to a train of symptoms the 
most lamentable that can be conceived, of which 
Impotence is one. 

Exciting Causes. 

Food of a stimulating and heating nature, as 
well as salt provisions, act as exciting causes. Beer, 
of all beverages, has been more especially accused 
of this effect, but on insufficient grounds; it is, 
however, certain, that of all beverages, it is the one 
which will soonest bring back a discharge* when 
taken during convalescence. 

Does the Gonorrhoea ever Wear itself 
Out? 

Many have put this question to me, — Does this 
disorder (Gonorrhoea?) ever cure itself? — does it 
ever wear itself out? To which I have always re- 
plied, that it is a terrible risk to run ; for not only 
will it wear out the patience of the patient, but will 
leave open the widest door for the consequences I 
have just enumerated. 

The general consequences of a Gonorrhoea, if not 
early and properly treated, is a Gleet ; and a gleet 
implies a certain morbid state of the urinary pas. 



GONORRHOEA. 4t9 

sage, which, if long continued, is almost sure to 
terminate in Stricture — a disease, than which I 
know nothing that, in the hands of most people, is 
more baffling and truly lamentable. 



TREATMENT of gonorrhoea. 



The real nature of the remedies for the cure of 
this disease, is but little known by the mass, so that 
they are often misapplied. They are internal and 
external. 

I shall, under this head, give the best mode of 
treatment to be observed in the early stages of this 
disease. 

It should also be stated, there are other remedies 
which are occasionally wanted in the cure of this 
complaint, but not always; these are chiefly the 
common remedies required to lessen pain and in- 
flammation. 

Various things are used with such a view, but 
there are some which are far more suitable than 
others. 

The patient should keep as quiet as possible, 
avoiding at all times, either by much walking or 
riding, particularly on horseback, or on rough roads 
hi "wagons or carriages. 



50 TREATMENT OF GONORRHOEA, 

Cooling laxatives should be frequently used, and 
local applications made to the parts. 

When applied to by patients within two days 
after their disease becomes manifest, I have cured 
thousands by local application alone ; thus cutting 
short in ten hours, all vestige of the disease, which 
by a little neglect or bad treatment, frequently annoys 
the patient weeks and months. 

Remedies of the nature alluded to above, are 
composed of caustics, in a fluid form, and used with 
a glass syringe. 

It would not be safe for a person unacquainted 
with its effects, to make use of the remedy ; but 
when used in the hands of a physician, is productive 
of much benefit. The following is the formula for 
making the injection : 

No. 1. 
j Nitrate Silver, ten grains. 
( Distilled Water, one ounce. 
Shake until dissolved, and use but once with a 
glass syringe. 

The reader must recollect that this remedy must 
be resorted to at the onset of the disease, and not 
after the acute stage has continued some days. 

No. 2. 

SLiqui Plumbi Sub. acetatis. 1 dram. 
Tine. Opii, \ " 

Aq. Distill. 8 ounces. 



TREATMENT OF GONORRHOEA. 51 

As soon as the patient perceives the approach of 
the disease, he must abstain from all intoxicating 
and stimulating drinks. 

Apperient medicines must be used, and cleanliness 
of the parts observed. The above injection, No. 2, 
may be used three times a day until all discharge 
stops — taking a teaspoonfull three times a day of 
the following mixture : 

'Bals. Copaib., Syrup Tolu, Spt. Nit. dulc. 

ana — each one ounce. 
Aq. menth, Pip., two drams. 
Gum Arab., q. s. 
^Aq. Flor. aurant, two drams. 

Persons residing at a distance, who have objec- 
tions against applying to a physician or druggist in 
their village or vicinity, can have the above prescrip- 
tions prepared and forwarded to them by express, 
thereby avoiding all suspicion, and at the same time 
secure the remedy in a much more perfect form than 
by using the obnoxious and often adulterated medi- 
cines found in the drug stores. Other prescriptions 
known and prepared only by the author, can be ob- 
tained for a small remuneration, by applying, either 
personally or by letter, at the author's office, whose 
address may be found in the proper place in this book. 

To give recipes for these remedies, would be 
of no advantage to the patient, and would only 
subject him to unnecessary trouble and inconve- 
nience, as the scarcity of the articles used, and the 



52 WARTS ON THE GLANDS. 

want of adequate knowledge in their preparation, 
utterly precludes the possibility of any druggist or 
ordinary physician from prescribing them with any 
degree of safety or success. 



WARTS ON THE GLANDS. 



One of the frequent and troublesome conse- 
quences of Gonorrhoea, is the formation of warts, 
either single or in groups, over the glands or end of 
the penis. 

They are often extensive, and cover the entire 
glands. 

They can be removed by the use of scissors or 
the knife ; but by far the best course is to remove 
them by applying caustic to their roots. Sometimes 
their renewed growth is prevented by touching 
them with strong acetic acid. 



BUBO-SYMPTOMS AND CURE. 



Bubo may occur after either an attack of Gonorr- 
hoea or Syphilis ; but, as in most instances, it con- 
fines itself to Syphilis, I will treat it as coming under 
that head. It is an inflammation of a gland or 
glands of the groin, and, like an inflammation of any 



BUBO. SYMPTOMS AND CUHE. 53 



other kind, has a beginning, middle, and an end. It 
is occasioned by the poison being absorbed from the 
chancre, or ulcer, into the gland, and as a foreign 
body, produces that state of the system termed in- 
flammation. It has been a subject of remark, that 
where we have an ulcer seated upon the prepuce, it 
is more apt to produce bubo than one upon the 
glands penis. 

Buboes are not always a sure criterion of the 
venerial disease, for, after having an ulcer upon the 
leg of long standing, we are very apt to have an 
inflammation of the glands of the groin; just so 
with a whitlow upon the finger, you may have the 
auxiliary glands swollen. 

In the treatment of buboes, whether venerial or 
not, the same principle must be applied as in chancre, 
comprising attention to the general health, and a 
subdual of the prevailing symptoms. In no form 
of Syphilis is rest more important than in the treat- 
ment of bubo. The patient may plead the necessity 
of attending to business, and the utter impossibility 
of remaining at home; but be assured that rest, 
and that alone in the recumbent posture, will strip 
the disease of three-fourths of its horrors. There 
are some local diseases that create a greater consti- 
tutional disturbance than others, and buboes may 
be ranked among that class; and it would be as 
impolitic to check an inflammation of that sort sud- 



54 BUBO. SYMPTOMS AND CURE. 

denly, without creating some outlet, for the increas- 
ed action to vent itself, as it would to stop a flux, or 
to suppress the eruption of measles or scarlitina. 
If, therefore, the bubo is painful and much inflam- 
med, positive rest should be imposed, with a spare 
diet. Take an apperient, and should chancres alone 
be present, a treatment going in for their extinction 
should be continued. Or, as bubo often immediately 
succeeds the ulcer, and probably may be the first 
symptom, adopt as an addition to the above men- 
tioned, some alternative ; for instance, five grains of 
Plummer's pill every night, the apperient powder 
every other day, and let such local treatment be 
directed as the exigency of the case demands. 

It was formerly the received opinion that if 
buboes were not allowed to suppurate, the system 
could not escape thevenerial taint; but the fallacy 
of that doctrine has long since exploded. 

Diminish the circulating action of the vessels,, by 
establishing some slight drain, and determining the 
secretions to the intestines or skin, and buboes, even 
when matter has begun to be formed, will be dis- 
solved with judicious treatment, which, in nine cases 
out of ten, will not impregnate the system. To 
attend to this, w T arm applications should be constantly 
applied, every evening if possible. If there is a 
great deal of swelling, and the tumor is red and 
painful, leeches are of invaluable service ; but they 



BUBO. SYMPTOMS AND CURE. 55 

must be applied fearlessly, in numbers of ten and 
twelve at a time, to be repeated two or three times 
if necessary; for by applying them in small num- 
bers, they only tend to aggravate the disease by the 
irritation they produce. If there be much fever, 
and the arterial excitement is much aroused, or if 
there is great heat of the skin, you will take from 
twelve to sixteen ounces of blood from the arm. 
This remedy you may try before the amplication of 
the leeches. 

When, however, the constitutional excitement is 
not great, either local or universal, the topical appli- 
cation of the following ointment will produce absorp- 
tion; I have found it always to exert a beneficial 
effect : 

{Iodide of potassium, one dram. 
Tincture of iodine, " " 
Acetate of morphene, ten grains. 

Apply constantly a plaster of some of this oint- 
ment, spread upon a rag or lint, over the bubo, and 
occasionally rub a little of it gently into the skin ; 
or you may use the blue ointment in precisely the 
same manner. 

When buboes have been suffered to proceed, and 
the suppuration appears inevitable, it would be 
highly improper to retard it. It would only be 
disseminating through the system what nature was 
trying to expel. You may encourage it by the ap- 



56 BUBO. SYMPTOMS AND CURE. 

plication of poultices, warm fomentions, &c, and as 
soon as ripe, an opening should be made into it to 
allow the matter to escape. If it proceeds to that 
extent, it then falls under the practice of the sur- 
geon, and it would be ridiculous, under such circum- 
stances for any one, save he who is skilled in the 
treatment of disease, to attempt to prescribe for 
himself. Authors may talk and write upon the 
subject, but the diseases are so numerous, and as- 
sume such different aspects, that no one not skilled 
in their treatment, would attempt to become his 
own physician. Great care should be taken at this 
stage, to consult the best medical or surgical au- 
thority, and not be gulled by the outside show of 
venders of specifics. 

Rest should be strictly enjoined, and the patient 
observing a low diet, and avoiding stimulating 
drinks of all kinds. 

Many of my readers are probably aware that a 
large proportion of venerial buboes, even those 
which have suppurated, disappear under proper 
general treatment, combined with rest, without sur- 
gical interference; that those which burst heal 
rapidly, like any other abscess, provided the patient's 
health be good; and those which are .opened by 
vertical incision, heal rapidly. 

But surgeons are slow in opening a bubo without 
a reason, partly because it may disappear without 



BUBO.— SYMPTOMS AND CURE. 57 

such a measure, and partly because all abscesses 
which burst themselves, as a rule, do better than 
those opened with a knife. 

There is great importance in distinguishing be- 
tween a bubo arising from a virulent and one from 
a non-virulent disease. 

Non-virulent bubo is that which attends simple 
gonorrhoea, and may be considered as arising from 
common inflammatory action, extending in the 
course of the absorbent vessels of the penis to the 
glands of the groin. This disorder is to be treated 
as phlegmonous swellings in other parts of the body, 
either by repellants for the purpose of preventing 
the formation of matter, or by fomentations or poul- 
tices to produce suppuration, when that termination 
seems to be threatened by nature. 

A virulent bubo is marked by the same charac- 
teristic induration as a chancre itself, and the presence 
of this induration must inevitably give rise to the 
question of the virulent or non-virulent nature of 
the disease. 

The mere phlegmonous bubo, on the contrary, 
seldom manifests this disposition, and, therefore, its 
permanent hardness, uncombined with any symptom 
of suppuration, is a further proof of a virus haviug 
been the origin of a bubo. 

The virulent bubo goes on to ulceration ; but this 
is not conclusive, for strumous ulceration not unfre- 



58 GLEET. 

quently occurs in persons of a scrofulous diathesis ; 
therefore as Ricord observes, there is as much 
difficulty in forming a diagnosis between the virulent 
and non- virulent sore — and he maintains that by 
inoculation, and by that test alone, can a certain 
conclusion be arrived at. 

The same objections here arise as I have before 
described, when speaking of a doubtful sore, viz : — 
the healing without difficulty of the fictitious sore. 
ISTor, indeed, does it always occur, as Ricord himself 
acknowledges, that the sore produced by a virus, 
invariably puts on the character of a virulent ulcer, 
so that, indeed, the same difficulties may still result 
in forming a just diagnosis as existed before the 
experiment was tried. 



GLEET. 



A Gleet is almost always the consequence of a 
badly managed Gonorrhoea. 

Instead of following up the cure of that disease 
by the means, particularly dwelt upon, the discharge 
is suffered to go on from month to month, and the 
effect of this is to* entail a permanent disordered con- 
dition of the parts .affected, and which then generally 
goes under the name of Gleet, Weakness, dc. 



GLEET. 59 

It is important to understand tlie nature of this 
malady, especially as a very serious error respecting 
its infectious nature, prevails with many. 

It is a very common thing to hear it said that 
gleet is not infectious ; but this is very wrong and 
often leads to very great trouble. 

Virtuous and unsuspecting women are uninten- 
tionally involved in this complaint in consequence. 

A person about to marry, for instance, may not 
have had the Gonorrhofa for six or nine months or 
longer, but a slight discharge (so slight, indeed that 
lie has scarcely observed,) may have continued all 
the time; but he does not dream of its infectious 
nature, until the saddest consequences show them- 
selves. 

So, also, does a similar cause of unhapprness fre- 
quently occur in those that have been abroad, or 
from their family, for a length of time. 

Indeed, the consequences of this error are so 
very serious, that it merits any pains and trouble to 
set the matter in its own true light, and perhaps I 
cannot do this better than by giving a case or two 
as related by Sir Astley Cooper. 

On this subject he observes : — " Gonorrhoea, when 
neglected, sinks into a gleet, and. is known by the 
change of the color of the discharge, and the pain 
attending the inflammatory stage ceasing. In this 
Mate, is the discharge infectious or not ? I doubt, 



60 GLEET. 

myself, whether a gonorrhoea ever loses its power 
of causing infection as long as any discharge from 
the urethra remains, and I will give you my reasons 
for this opinion : 

A married gentleman went to Lisbon from this 
country, [England,] and whilst at a distance from 
home, departed, as too many do, from the path of 
virtue. 

The Portuguese lady, with whom he cohabited, 
gave him the Clap. He 1% turned to England, and 
after the expiration of five months and three days 
after first observing the Gonorrhoea, he called upon 
me, and asked whether he might return home with 
safety to his wife. 

He said he had a little discharge, and wished to 
know if, after having it five months and three days, 
it were possible for it to be infectious ? I replied — 
1 Certainly not; you may go home and there is no 
danger of giving it to your wife.' He went home, 
and, unfortunately, gave his wife a severe Clap. I 
attended both the parties afterwards, and was ex- 
tremely sorry for what I had done ; but I thought 
at the time I gave the advice, that a Gleet was not 
infectious. But I think differently now, and believe 
that after a continuance of several months, the dis- 
charge is infectious." 

I will give another instance as related by Sir 
Astley Cooper: 



GLEET. 61 

"A gentleman from the north of England, who 
had been recently married, came to me and said 
that he had communicated a Gonorrhoea to his 
wife. Shocked at such an occurrence, I said, * How 
could you think of acting in such a manner V 

1 Why, sir,' said he, 'for fourteen months prior to 
ray marriage, I had a Gonorrhoea. I made various 
attempts to get rid of it, and had a variety of ad- 
vice about it, but yellowish discharge continued. I 
was told by everybody that it was not infectious, 
and not until after such repeated assurances did I 
get married. The consequence, however, is, that 
my wife has a severe pain in making water, and a 
copious discharge.' 

I visited her and found her in this state. She 
was some time under my treatment before she quite 
recovered. 

From what I have seen, I do hold that a medical 
man is not warranted in saying that a discharge of 
a Gleety kind is not infectious." 

On these two cases, faithfully related, every person 
may be able to form his own opinion on the infec- 
tious nature of the Gleet. I think they are sufficient 
to make every reflecting conscientious person take 
care how he gives advice in such a case, particularly 
if the patient is a married man. 

Indeed, it is from this error, or from a total in- 
difference as to its consequence, that we have so 



62 GLEET. 

many cases of Gonorrhoea ; they are twenty to one 
compared with venerial. 

In fact, the common women of the town pay no 
attention to Gleet. 

After the first, or inflammatory symptoms of a 
Gonorrhoea have subsided, they mix with society as 
though nothing had ailed them. 

In the patients of the hospital called the " Lock," 
in London, for instance, nothing is more common 
than to see the Venerial and Gonorrhoeal in the 
same female ; but it is the venerial which brings 
them there. 

As to the Gonorrhoea or Gleet, they will tell you 
they have had that a long time, and thought nothing 
of it ; but having got the Venerial in the form of 
Chancres, they become alarmed and are anxious to 
be cured. 

So, also, when the Venerial is cured, they seldom 
stop in the hospital for the cure of Gonorrhoeal or 
Gleet, but go out again promiscuously in the town 
and spread the Gonorrhoea in every quarter. 

I do not assert that every Gleet is infectious, but 
they are generally so ; and there is no mark what- 
ever by which it can be said that this one is infectious 
and that one is not — this can only - be known by 
its consequences. 

How serious therefore to say to any one that a 
Gleet is not infectious. A discharge of this harm- 



GLEET. 63 

less kind may proceed from two distinct causes 
which may be easily understood. 

In the first place it may proceed from a little 
abscess which occasionally forms in the urinary pas- 
sage and breaks ; and the other is a discharge pro- 
ceeding from a stricture. 

Now, the nature of these two causes of discharge 
must be understood, and then a suspicious Gleety 
disorder will be easily detected and distinguished 
from either of these. 

First, — With regard to the discharge from the 
little abscesses above mentioned, it should be known 
that in the whole length of the urinary passage, 
are situated here and there little sacks for the pur- 
pose of secreting a lubricating fluid ; these are called 
lacunae. 

After a Gonorrhoea, these little lacunae are some- 
times affected with common inflammation, which 
forms into abscesses, and when these burst and their 
contents discharged, the running ceases. 

Now, the circumstance by which these abscesses 
may be distinguished from Gleet, is this : the dis- 
charge from the lacunae stops entirely for a week or 
two, and then, when another breaks, it comes on 
again suddenly, and again ceases as before ; but the 
discharge from an infectious Gleet never stops — it 
may increase from excess, or irregularities of any 
kind, and it may decrease so as to become very 



64 TREATMENT AND CURE OF GLEET. 

trifling, bv+ it never cease's altogether. This, there- 
fore, affords a good rule for judging between Gleet 
and a discharge from these abscesses in the urinary 
passage. 

And next, — With respect to the discharge arising 
from strictures, this will be easily detected by con- 
sidering the symptoms proper to stricture, of which 
we shall hereafter treat. 

The Treatment and Cure of Gleet. 

A Gleet is often a very troublesome disease to 
manage. 

If there were no other reason for saying this, I 
might safely infer.it from the numbers who have 
come to me with this complaint, having had it on 
them more or less for a length of time. 

These patients generally state that they have tried 
a great variety of means, and are quite disheartened. 
I cannot always learn particularly what these means 
have been, but I am well aware of two important 
things, first: that whatever they have been, they 
have always failed; and next, whatever has been 
the state and condition of their case, the means I 
am now about to mention have generally succeeded. 

I think it may be right to premise these remarks, 
because it may be thought by some, the plan I re- 
commend is troublesome. It may be so ; but then, 
I would repeat, this plan succeeds, generally when 
every other means fails. 



TREATMENT AND CUBE OF GLEET. 65 

: p. 

Pure air and exercise will in all cases prove 
serviceable. In taking exercise, it should be done 
by moderate walking or in an easy carriage ; riding 
on horseback should never be indulged in, as the 
motion thereby given to the parts invariably irritates 
and injures them. Costiveness at all times should 
be avoided, and where medicine is necessary to ac- 
complish this, I know of nothing more beneficial 
than a little good Turkey rhubarb — any other but 
good is worthless. The patient should keep it in 

4 his pocket, and bite off a piece half the size of a 
pea two or three times a day ; active or drastic purga- 
tives are highly injurious — the rhubarb imitates 
nature only. Injections, properly prepared and 
used with moderation, will be of important utility — 
but to have them used with decided advantage, the 
parts should be examined and such remedies made 

kuse of as will allay the irritation and stop the dis- 
charge, rather than by using some inapppropriate 
remedy, increase the discharge and aggravate the 
disease. The food may consist of a moderate amount 
of animal matter, avoiding fat and rich gravies, which 
are powerful stimulants. Vegetables are useful, 
and when partaken of freely, prove laxative to the 
bowels. Avoid spices and salt meats, as they tend 
to increase thirst. The moderate use of demulcent 
or mucilaginous drinks will be attended with good 
results, but when carried to excess often prove irri- 



66 GONORRHOEA IN FEMALES. 

tating to tlie urinary organs and injurious to the 
disease. 

Other remedies, and, indeed, several very differ- 
ent modes of treatment, are occasionally required 
in those old and obstinate cases of Gleet that we 
freequently meet with ; but they are mostly of a 
character demanding great judgment and experience- 
in their application, and could not with propriety, 
or even with any utility, be entrusted to public or 
non-professional men. 



GONORRHOEA IN FEMALES. 



There is no difTerenee in this disorder in females 
but what arises from difference in the organs which 
are the seat of it. 

Generally speaking, however, the inflammation 
attending it is more diffused. In some cases it ex- 
tends to the lower part of the belly, which makes it 
painful on pressure ; also, the urinary passage being 
shorter, it is more apt to produce irritation in the 
bladder than in males, so that there is a great in- 
clination to make water. 

There are no ulcers in this disease, although the 
discharge is sometimes so irritating as to excoriate 
the skin. 

There is also a swollen state of the external parts. 



GONORRHOEA IN FEMALES. 67 

There are, however, some curious circumstances 
relating to this disorder in females, which should be 
known. The following are of this nature : 

Generally speaking, the disease is milder in females 
than in males. 

Also, a female may have a Gonorrhoea without 
her knowing it. 

This happens from the complaint being of a milder 
character, and from her not discriminating between 
this disease and certain slighter forms of discharge 
which many females are subject to. 

It is most likely to occur in women of unrestrained 
intercourse, as such persons generally have the 
slightest forms of this disorder. 

The same female may give a Gonorrhoea to one 
person and not to another. This arises from the 
character and habit of the person himself. 

If he has pursued a life of free unbridled inter- 
course, he is much less liable to receive infection 
than a fresh and healthy person of a contrary charac- 
ter; the latter will frequently take a Gonorrhoea 
from a female who has only a slight gleety dis- 
charge, when the former would escape it. 
^ Again, a female may receive a Gonorrhoea from 
one person, and give it to another, without having 
it herself. 

This may appear strange, but it is a fact. It hap- 
pens in this way : ' 



68 GONORRHOEA IN FEMALES. 

A female lias an interview with a person having 
a Gonorrhoea, and soon after sees a fresh and healthy- 
person ; this latter person comes in contact with the 
infectious matter before it has time to engender the 
disease, and removes it — the consequnce is, that he 
takes the Gonorrhoea and she escapes it. It is an 
incident which often leads to very puzzling surmises. 

A female may always know, or at least have reason 
to suspect, she has an infectious disorder, when she* 
has lately had a Gonorrhoea and a discharge re- 
mains, greater, or in any way different, from what 
she was accustomed to before she had the Gonorrhoea. 

Indeed, it is on this important truth that the ne- 
cessity of a speedy and perfect cure of Gonorrhoea 
is urged ; for it this remaining Gleet and slight dis- 
charge which is the cause of most of the Gonorr- 
hoea we meet with — and when this advice here 
given becomes more generally known and acted on, 
we shall but seldom hear of Gonorrhoea or Clap 
at all. 

With these remarks, I leave the subject of Gonorr- 
hoea and Gleet in females ; and when it is considered 
that so long as any discharge remaining after Gonorr- 
hoea exists — so long as there is any possibility of 
spreading the disorder to a second person — a suffi- 
cient reason will be seen for laying so great a stress 
on curing Gleet at once. 



GONORRHOEA IN FEMALES. 69 

It is to be hoped that the foregoing outline of the 
diseases, arising from impure sexual contact, will be 
found sufficiently precise to demonstrate at once 
their complexity and importance. 

Let not false delicacy induce the sufferer to hazard 
the dangerous experiment of the management of 
his own case — if too far advanced. 

Without any knowledge of the modifications 
which individual temperament produces on the 
character of disease — without an intimate acquaint- 
ance with the nature of disease, rather than with 
the mere history of symptoms — ignorant of the 
precise operation of powerful remedies — for such 
a one to turn those powerful engines of good or of 
evil upon himself, is a species of weakness truly 
pitiable. 

Attempts at self-cure (except in the onset of 
these diseases,) are frequently dangerous, and are 
too often finished in self-destruction. 

It has been said, (and not without truth,) that in 
the practice of the law, " He who conducts his own 
case, has a fool for his client ;" and much more em- 
phatically may the assertion painfully apply to those 
who turn in weakness and suffering, their ill-judged 
remedies against themselves. 

The practitioners of the healing art, especially in 
this peculiar line of practice, are generally wiser, and 
silently teach the unprofessional world an important 
lesson in refusing to prescribe for themselves. 



70 PHYMOSIS. 



PHYMOSIS. 



Phymosis is of Greek origin, and is employed to 
designate the disease, in which the foreskin or pre- 
puce is so swollen and straightened that it cannot 
be drawn back over the gland. 

Many men have the prepuce naturally so tight, 
that the gland cannot be exposed ; but this forma- 
tion will not particularly engage our attention. 

Others have drawn the prepuce over the glands 
and have not been able to slip it back again, owing 
to the smallness of the opening and the swelling of 
the parts. 

This condition of the organ is unpleasant, annoy- 
ing and dangerous, because it prevents proper clean- 
liness, and thus disposes to various diseases. 

The secretion of the Glandulae Oderifera is apt 
to accumulate under the skin, and in conjunction 
with the urine, to create serious inflammation. 

Calculi will also form, like those in the bladder, 
and the swelling will sometimes be so great that 
neither semen or urine can pass. 

In many cases of Phymosis, the swelling is so 
great as to cause immense pain during erection, 
and the glands is so compressed in consequence, 
that the semen cannot escape, and consequently the 
individual is impotent. 



PHYMOSIS. 71 

The disease in question is an inflammation of the 
prepuce, accompanied by swelling, redness and heat 
of the part, produced by the syphilitic virus, or any 
other acrimony applied to the gland and prepuce, 
or poured out between the integuments forming the 
prepuce. 

It often proceeds from venerial ulcers on the in- 
side of the prepuce, or from a mild Gonorrhoea. 

The disease may, and no doubt is, frequently in- 
duced by coming in contact with women whose 
fluids are of a very inciting nature. 

Women have been known whose vaginas were 
lubricated by a fluid of such excessive acrimony that 
whoever had intercourse with them would be sure 
to have erasions of the penis, in half an hour after, 
as would make it necessary to wash, and this gave 
relief. 

Yet the woman does not suffer from it herself, 
nor is she seldom suspected of being diseased, and 
those who have been with her, do not suffer any 
other than the inconvenience above spoken of. 

To Phymosis are especially subject those men 
who from nature have the gland covered with a 
more straight prepuce, or who have too short a 
fraenum; all those whose religion ordains circum- 
cision, are free from it. 

It has been recommended in this disease to slit 
up the prepuce so as to bring the parts into view, 



72 PABAPHTM0SI9- 

and to admit the application of suitable remedies, 
or to prevent chancres and the spreading of ulcers 
whea they occur. 

This operation is sometimes absolutely necessary, 
but, in my opinion, it ought not to be performed 
without sufficient reasons ; for in the wound formed 
by the incision, there often arises obstinate fungous 
excrecenses, nearly, if not quite, as alarming as the 
original disease. 

Sometimes the wound, by exposing a fresh and 
larger surface to the absorption of the virus, increases 
the danger of chancre. 



PARAPHYMOSIS. 



This word is derived from the Greek para, 
about — and phimoo, to bridle. 

In this disease, the foreskin being drawn behind 
the gland, is so contracted there that it cannot be 
brought again forward, but makes a sort of ligature 
behind the gland, and should for this reason be 
more properly termed a strangulation of the glands. 

The skin being unequally extended, becomes in- 
dented and forms several rings around the parts. 

This disease may proceed from two causes : from 
the imprudence of children, (with whom it is very 



PARAPHYMOSIS. ?3 

common,) and sometimes, also, of grown persons, 
who having the end of the foreskin too tight, cannot 
uncover the gland without pain, and when they have 
done it, neglect returning it as soon as they ought, 
and thus the contracted part, forms a contraction. 
Soon after, the penis and gland swell, and, the fore- 
skin being consequently very much distended, is 
affected in the same manner; an inflammation seizes 
upon both, and swelling quickly appears upon the 
stricture. 

If at this time the patient is not speedily relieved, 
mortification will ensue. Fortunately the operation 
is easy and always successful. 

It is necessary to prick the foreskin near the place 
of stricture with a sharp lancet, then gradually but 
gently press the parts, from which will ooze a small 
quantity of blood and serum. The thumbs are 
now to be applied to the gland, while the fore and 
middle fingers are to seize the enlarged skin behind 
the point of strangulation, and forcibly draw it to 
its natural position. 

The second thing that may produce a Paraphy- 
mosis, is a venerial virus. 

In adults whose gland is uncovered, there fre- 
quently arise venerial chancres in the prepuce after 
coition, which are mostly attended with inflamma- 
tion, more or less considerable. This is alone suffi- 
cient to render the foreskin too straight for the size 



74 PARAPHYMOSIS. 

of the penis, in consequence of which a swelling 
may ensue like that before mentioned. 

I would forcibly impress it upon the mind of my 
reader, that natural or congenital phymosis, which 
impedes the urine, also, in adults compressing the 
gland during erection, prevents sexual commerce. 

In case the contraction of the prepuce is so small, 
as to obstruct the evacuation of urine after it has 
escaped from the urethra, irritation, inflammation 
and sloughing will ensue. 

Cases of rapid sloughing, and destruction of the 
penis in aged and other persons, are quite frequent. 

All persons thus affected should immediately ap- 
ply for proper treatment. I relieve many such 
persons in a simple manner, without leaving any 
traces of their former trouble, very quickly, so that 
in a very few days they are well. 

If this disease be accompanied by a Gonorrhoea, 
we ought to be very cautious in regard to any cold 
applications, lest we bring on a worse complaint by 
retropulsion, than the disease for which they are 
applied. 

If we are not able to reduce it, and the symptoms 
are urgent, we must make an incision in the prepuce ; 
an operation by no means dangerous, but absolutely 
necessary to prevent the most disagreeable of all 
consequences — a mortification of the gland. 



STRICTURE. *I5* 



If there are ulcers on one side only, we should 
make the incision on the opposite side, in order to 
secure the wounds as much as possible from the 
poison, and to prevent its absorption by the lym- 
phatics of the fresh wound. 



STRICTURE. 



The disease of which I am about to treat, is one 
of the most frequent of the diseases of the genito 
urinary apparatus, and is often followed by fatal ac- 
cidents, when those who are suffering from it neg- 
lect the employment of competent medical advice, 
or incautiously trust themselves to the imprudent 
hands of quacks, or to physicians not sufficiently 
skilled in the treatment of this affection. 

The essential nature of Stricture, is Chronic in- 
flammation. 

A stricture consists, at first, in a loss of that 
dilating or elasting property by which the urinary 
passage, which, while at rest, is in a collapsed state, 
becomes more or leas unable to yield or open before 
the column of urine projected from the bladder. 

The diseased condition exists, during the early 
part or first stage of stricture, only as a soft, swollen 



76 STRICTURE. 

or puffy state of tlie delicate skin lining tlie passage, 
and perhaps, also , of the immediate subadjacent 
tissue. 

Could a view of it be obtained at this time, a 
small portion of the passage, from a quarter to one 
inch in length, would be observed to be merely a 
little swollen and redder than the rest, and this 
would generally be situated at about five or six 
inches inwards, to occasionally near the external 
orifice, and more rarely still at both places. 

The contact of an instrument with this spot, dis- 
covers it to be very tender or sensitive, the patient 
describing the sensation to be as if a sore or raw 
surface were touched; which however is not the 
case. 

In this case, a stricture offers but little impedi- 
ment (sometimes none) to the stream of urine, and 
no resistance to the passage of an instrument 

So true is this, that, except by a careful experi- 
ence and well educated hand, it is easily overlooked 
or missed. 

In the next or second stage of the stricture an im- 
portant change has taken place. The portion of the 
passage which was in a tumefied condition, has now 
acquired a certain firmness, — it resembles a band en- 
circling the passage, narrowing it at this point, and 
actually reducing its capacity. 

It now offers a decided impediment to the urine, 
and if a moderate sized instrument is introduced, an 



STRICTURE. 77 

evident resistance is met, though with a gentle pres- 
sure it yields, and the instrument pretty easily passes 
on. 

In a still more advanced or third stage, the dilata- 
ble condition has appeared, the stricture has become 
firin or callous, as it is commonly called, the con- 
traction is unyielding, and an instrument meets with 
an abrupt, positive resistance; the calibre of the 
passage being frequently so diminished as hardly to 
allow the urine to pass at all, or even an instrument 
of the smallest positive size. 

It is not always possible to say that a stricture is 
in exactly one or the other of these stages, for the 
disease passes imperceptibly from one to the other ; 
often so slowly that several years, sometimes many 
years, will elapse before a stricture has passed from 
the first to the second, or from the second to the 
third. 

It is not unfrequent or strange that we meet with 
cases just verging upon a third stage, the commence- 
ment of which was undoubtedly establised twenty 
and even thirty years previously ; others, again, will 
arrive to the same degree in a very few years. 

A stricture in a person of very regular habits, will 
sometimes remain ten or fifteen years without hav- 
ing fairly advanced to the second stage. 

On the nature of a stricture, also, it should be 
further observed, there is no natural cure for 



78 THE CAUSES OF STRICTURE. 

it. When a stricture once begins, it is sure to go 
on increasing either rapidly or slowly. 

Fortunately, however, we have the means of cur- 
ing it by art, as will soon be described. 

The Causes of Stricture. 

The causes of this disease may be numerous. It 
was said, on commencing this subject, that the 
essential nature of a stricture was inflammation. It 
is now also said, that whatever is capable of pro- 
ducing or keeping up a long continued irritation or 
inflammation in the urinary passage, may become a 
cause of stricture, and that occasionally, though 
rarely, stricture seems to be spontaneous. 

In a work of this kind, it would be useless to enter 
minutely into the causes of stricture, yet it is well to 
state the fact, because it is often of the greatest im- 
portance to detect, early existence ; and when its 
symptoms are present, it should be examined into, 
whether the person has been exposed to its common 
causes or not. 

The most common cause of stricture of the urinary 
passage is, badly cured Gonorrhoea and Gleet; and 
the way it does so, is this : Gonorrhoea itself is essen- 
tially an inflammation of a specific kind. 

I have before stated, that Gonorrhoea began at 
the orifice of the urinary passage, and that if not 
promptly and properly cured, it reached the other 



THE CAUSES OF STICTURE. 79 

end and there become fixed, obstinate, giving rise to 
great difficulty of cure and permanent Gleet, i. e., it 
passes from the acute to the chronic stage of inflam- 
mation. 

It is well to know that the ultimate tendency of 
inflammation of any kind is to thicken, to indurate 
the organ or tissue which may happen to be the 
seat of it ; and the specific inflammation of Gonorr- 
hoea has this tendency to a degree, perhaps, greater 
than any other — hence its proneness to give rise to 
this disease, stricture. I may safely say that fifteen 
out of twenty are from this cause. 

The next cause in frequency is Masturbation, or, 
self abuse. The local disease produced by this bane- 
ful practice, of which I shall hereafter speak, is 
sometimes actual stricture, but much more common- 
ly it differs considerably from it; both, however 
occupying much about the same spot, have some 
symptoms in common. This would, perhaps, ac- 
count for four out of the remaining five ; the other 
one being from one of the rarer and peculiar causes. 

From the opportunities I have enjoyed of forming 
an opinion, I believe, as I have before stated, that 
strictures are much more commonly occasioned by 
a long standing Gonorrhoea, or Gleet, than from any 
other cause, which probably would have been avoid- 
ed by the judicious employment of injections. 



80 THE CAUSES OF STRICTURE. 



These chronic discharges harass the unfortunate 
patients for months, and even for years, to such a 
degree as to cause a disregard for every thing else, 
and to induce the most melancholy ideas. 

The discharge, it is true, is not contagious. If, 
however, an individual affected with it, commit ex- 
cesses with a female, even one in good health, it 
increases, and may very soon, in some cases, consti- 
tute a genuine Clap, which may be communicated. 

A discharge from the urethra, among the un- 
professional, is too commonly regarded as a slight 
affection, and they scarcely give it a thought, unless 
the inflammatory symptoms being somewhat severe, 
rendering it painful and difficult to walk, force them 
to keep their room. Simplicity in diet is here quite 



Some, impatient to be relieved from a discharge 
which annoys them, resort to remedies more or less 
energetic, which, if they do not suddenly arrest the 
disease, abate its progress ; others, more indifferent, 
allow the mucous membrane to become habituated 
to a morbid secretion, by opposing no treatment to 
the evil. 

Others, impatient to return to their pleasures, or 
their business, importune too obliging physicians, who 
pursue a course to early, which at a later stage, would 
have produced great effect, but which at a period, at 
which the disease is not sufficiently advanced, deran w> 



THE CAUSES OF STRICTURE. 81 

its progres, and induce it to pass into a chronic state 
which the physician taids very difficult to manage, 
even if the patient at lasi consents to submit entire- 
ly to his advice. 

Symptoms of Stricture. 

The first symptoms which indicate that a stricture 
is actually established in the urethra, is a remark- 
able change in the flow of the urine, both as regards 
quantity and direction. 

If the urine is projected in a single jet, the patient 
finds it impossible to direct it to any given point; 
thus, if he wishes it to go to the right he finds it to 
diverge to the left, or immediately downwards. 

The stream is mostly flattened and twisted into a 
spiral form like a cork screw ; frequently the stream 
is divided into two or even five jets, none of which 
can be controlled as to direction. One of these 
streams not unfrequently turns completely round, 
so as to bespatter the clothes. 

The patient cannot ascertain when he is done im- 
mediately, for when he has returned the penis within 
his trousers, he finds a sudden gush of urine to follow, 
and this often happens several times in siiccession. 

This state of thirgs may remain for years, during 
which the patient will not be aware of any change 
in the state of his complaint, although the disease is 
steadly progressing. 



i 



82 SYMPTOMS OF STRICTURE. 

During the whole progress of the disease, there is 
a discharge more or less copious from the urethra, 
and the stream of urine gradually, although almost 
imperceptibly, decreases in volume. After a time, 
the passage of the urine becomes so difficult, owing 
to the straightening of the canal, that it only flows 
drop by drop ; at this time a half hour or more is 
consumed in voiding the urine, accompanied by the 
most excruciating pain. 

The patient also finds his shirt to be stained fre- 
quently by drops of blood, particularly after severe 
exercise. This is generally an indication of the 
rapid increase of the disease, notwithstanding which 
a profuse flow of blood generally alleviates the 
symptoms. 

When the stricture has been of very long stand- 
ing, say five or six years, the patient, in addition to 
the other symptoms, experiences severe pains in the 
head of the penis, along the whole course of the 
urethral canal, extending to the verge of the arms. 

The pain in the perinaeum is frequent, prevent- 
ing him from sitting on a chair. Pains are also 
felt in the spermatic canal, in the testicle, and on 
the inner side of the thigh, extending down to the 
calf of the leg, and upon making water a tingling 
sensation is felt in the ends ot the fingers. 

Strictures are aggravated by sexual intercourse 
and dissipation, and lay the foundation for diseases 



SYMPTOMS OF STRICURE. 83 

of the prostrate gland, neck of the bladder, the 
bladder itself, and the kidneys, which render life 
almost insupportable. 

The emissions of semen will often happen in- 
voluntarily, and the patient, instead of pleasure in 
coition, experiences nothing but pain. 

In every stage of this malady, the patient ex- 
periences great dejection of mind, not being aware 
of the ease with which, in a majority of cases, the 
stricture can be removed, abandons himself to dis- 
sipation and ruin. 

There is often a loss of sexual desire and power 
of erection. There is more or less pain and weak- 
ness in the back, with darting pains through the 
bowels, and the testicles and feet become cold. The 
bladder becomes irritable, and there is a constant 
desire to urinate during all times of the day and 
night, with a constant itching and tickling in the 
urinary passage, allowing the patient hardly a mo- 
ments rest from his sufferings. 

The organs of digestion are impaired, there is a 
loss of appetite, soreness of the stomach, depression 
of spirits, wasting of the testicle and a dimiuution in 
the size of the gen itive organs, particularly the penis, 
with the loss of erectile power, resulting in a com- 
plete impotency. 

I have before stated that a badly treated gonorr- 
hoea or a gleet was by far the commonest cause of 



84 SYMPTOMS OF STRICTURE. 

stricture. When a gonorrhoea has continued the 
usual length of time, several months for instance, and 
the patient has had a former gonorrhoea, I consider 
the length of time alone a sufficient reason to sus- 
pect the possibility of stricture, it should be imme- 
diately ascertained for fact whether it be so or not. 

This can only be ascertained by examining the 
passage with the bougie, which is a very easy and 
simple thing to do. 

Nothing can better show the difference between 
the common advertising knave and nostrum seller, 
and the good and faithful physician, than the differ- 
ence of their conduct in the case of stricture. The 
former will never trouble you with the sound of such 
a word, but will sell you colored drops or pills, or 
some such thing, as long as you will take them, and 
then will leave you in a state of mental misery ; 
while the latter will put his questions on the ground 
of possibility of Stricture, and if he should detect 
the least suspicious circumstance, he will not rest 
until he has discovered the fact whether it be so or 
not. 

He will then explain the nature of a stricture, 
and show the inutility of medicine in such a case ; 
and afterwards conduct you to a safe and perfect 
cure. 

None but those who see it daily, can form the 
least idea of the chagrin and misery a man escapes 



SYMPTOMS OF STRICTURE. 85 

who falls into the hands of a person well skilled in 
diseases of this nature. 

Sores about the head of the penis and prepuce, 
much resembling it and frequently taken for it, are 
also among the symptoms of a stricture. The late 
Mr. Abernethy, of London, in his work on Syphilis, 
has admirably shown this fact. 

Instances have occured in which these sores have 
proved unyielding under many surgeons and diffe- 
rent modes of treatment, but have got well immedi- 
ately upon treating them accordingly. 

This strange fact admits of explanation. It de- 
pends on a law of sympathy — a pow r er of the nervous 
system which produces disease in one part from a disor- 
der seated in another ; thus, disorder in the stomach, 
produces pain in the head ; and in that painful disease, 
the stone, the pain is felt, not in the bladder, the seat 
of the disease, but in the tip of the penis. 

In like manner, a stricture occasionally produces 
irritation and disease of the penis, or in the testicles 
or elsewhere. 

Mr. Abernethy took much pains to explain the 
nature and treatment of these ulcers. He was led 
to this from meeting occasionally, with very obstinate 
sores on the penis, which did not correspond with 
what he called Pseudo-Syphilitic, (a sore on the 
penis, the result of an ineffectual course of mercury 
for the cure of Venerial disease,) and which at 



86 SYMPTOMS OF STRICTURE. 

length he found to originate in Stricture in the 
urinary passage. 

Further, in the correctness of this opinion he be- 
came afterwards fully satisfied, by finding that 
ulcers of this kind, which had resisted every means 
that could be devised, or which if healed, would 
afterwards re-appear again and again, were speedily 
and permanently cured on the removal of the stric- 
ture. 

Sores and other affections of the throat, are some- 
times symptoms of stricture. They occur on the 
same principle, viz : the sympathy existing between 
the organs of generation and the throat, so that dis- 
order in one, will produce disorder in the other. 

Many curious facts might be stated on this subject, 
but being rather curious than practical importance, 
my statements will be but brief. 

The sympathies between the organs of generation 
and the throat in both sexes, are very striking. Not 
only is the beard upon the chin prevented, if the 
testicles are removed before the age of puberty, but 
also the developement of the throat is hindered, so 
that the voice fails to attain the deep and tenor tone 
of men. 

It is a curious fact, that when the corresponding- 
organ of the female is removed, (the ovaria,) the voice 
becomes deep and rough in women and hair shoots 
out upon the lips and chin. 



SYMPTOMS OF STRICTURE. 87 

Young women who have beards are generally less 
prolific than those with none. 

Bingham mentions a case which came under his 
own knowledge, of a young lady who had a beard, 
but lost it after her marriage. 

All this shows the ultimate connection which 
exists between these distinct organs, and accounts 
for many morbid actions occuring in the throat, sim- 
ply from sympathizing with a stricture. 

There are many remote diseases which arise from 
stricture, in consequence of the sympathies which 
exist between the sexual organs and distant parts of 
the body. 

In other words, a Stricture in the urinary^ passage 
is capable of disturbing the stomach, and through 
this medium, of inducing other and remote com- 
plaints, all of which, therefore, are correctly placed 
among the symptoms of Stricture. These com- 
plaints are chiefly of a nervous character, as head- 
ache, low spirits, diminution of wonted clearness of 
mind and other hypochondriacal feelings; and so 
evidently are these the effect of Stricture, that they 
cease as its cure proceeds, while they resist every 
measure short of this. 

The hypochondriacal state of mind resulting from 
Stricture of the urinary passage, sometimes exist to 
such a degree as to become truly distressing and 
serious. 



SYMPTOMS OF STRICTURE. 



There is no doubt that many suicides, happening 
when the circumstances and other relations of the 
individual cannot in any way account for the act, 
are in reality the consequence of the severe mental 
depression which sometimes attends Stricture. 

It is natural to infer that the sufferer is generally 
ignorant of the existence of such a cause of his 
misery — a knowledge of it would have saved him, 
for with the knowledge would have come, at least, 
a hope of relief, if not of cure ; but, unfortunately, 
again the false delicacy existing on the subject of 
the diseases of the generative organs, tends to 
operate very unfavorably on some minds. 

Many persons have declared that their failure in 
business had been attributable to the effect of Stric- 
ture on their mind and energy. A long list of 
similar instances might be given. 

Mr. Bingham, of London, a very sensible writer, 
has exceedingly well enumerated the various sensa- 
tions and other symptoms which may occur in 
Stricture. I shall conclude the subject of " Symp- 
toms of Stricture," by transcribing from his w T ork a 
few of the most important, leaving out, however, all 
technicalities. Nothing, correctly detailed, can be 
uninteresting to one afflicted with Stricture. 

Mr. Bingham says, — " Various kinds of sensa- 
tions are produced in different degrees, by Stricture 
in the urinary passage; as an itching of the penis 



SrMFTOMS OF STRICTURE. 89 

or the parts about, and a fluttering or pulsating sen- 
sation in some parts of the passage ; numbness of 
the thighs is another symptom, as are also a smart- 
ing or burning pain in the head of the penis, and 
darting pains shooting to and fro from the funda- 
ment to this part, or up to the back and loins; pain 
in the hip, down the thighs and on the inside of 
the knees, frequently occurs from Stricture in the 
urinary passage, and pain has also been known in 
the sole of the foot from the same cause. 

Again he observes, — " Sexual intercourse is apt 
to aggravate the symptoms of Stricture, whatever 
they are. Sometimes this act is attended with pain 
and inability to emit the seminal fluid; at other 
times only part of it passes, and the remainder steals 
away when the erection has ceased. Retention of 
urine has been brought on by sexual connexion in 
patients troubled with Stricture. 

" The penis is variously affected by Stricture. 
Sometimes the erections are excessively frequent j 
and troublesome — these may, or may not be ac- 
companied with seminal emissions during sleep; at 
other times the erections are weak and inefficient, 
and occasionally altogether wanting. 

" Sometimes swelling of one or more of the 
glands in the groin, and enlargement of the testi- 
cle, indicates the existence of Stricture in the 
urinary passage ; and another symptom is, hardness 



90 CONSEQUENCES OF STICTURE. 



to be felt externally in the situation of the Stricture. 
Inflammation and a gathering in that part between 
the arms and the testicles, are also symptoms of the 
disease. 

" It has been stated upon high authority, that 
Strictured patients cannot comfortably cross their 
legs ; but whenever I have had an opportunity to 
notice this, there has been, besides the Stricture, a 
disease of the prostrate gland — a hardish body 
situated at the entrance of the bladder, just where 
the urinary passage begins, and which is extremely 
liable to enlargement in elderly people — or inflam- 
mation about this part." 

The Consequences of Stricture. 

The consequences of Stricture are truly lament- 
able. 

One of its first consequences, is the effect which 
straining has upon the bladder. The more resist- 
ance the Stricture offers to the flow of the urine, of 
course the more exertion the bladder must make. 

This leads to a thickening of its coats, and to 
other conditions of it, which make it irritable, and 
capable of retaining but very little urine, so that 
the calls are frequent and pressing, disturbing peace 
and rest. From the same cause, also, the kidneys 
are very apt to be diseased. 



CONSEQUENCES OF STRICTURE. 01 



The next effect of so much straining, is produced 
upon the passage itself, just behind the strictured 
part. 

The force of the urine, as may be easily imagined, 
dilates the canal, and forms a pouch or bag in which 
the urine lodges. 

But this, which always happens more or less, may 
lead to lamentable consequences. In the first place 
it may render the passage of the bougie impossible ; 
for when the pouch is large, the orifice leading out 
of it may not exactly correspond with that leading 
into it, so that the bougie may easily pass in, but 
not pass out through it. 

And in the next, the urine lodging here, is very 
apt to irritate and produce disease. 

Disease arising from this cause is of the most dis- 
tressing and permanent kind. Matter forms in the 
subjacent Strictures, and makes its way out by 
opening into the passage, and also by opening ex- 
ternally, ulcerating through the parts between the 
thighs. 

But the worst is, the passage it thus makes will 
not heal. It is difficult and sometimes quite im- 
possible to prevent the urine passing through it. 
This is what is called a Sinus, or fiistula in per- 
inoeo. 

Sir Everard Home, a very eminent writer on this 
subject, surgeon to the late King of England, in his 



92 CONSEQUENCES OF STRICTURE. 

third volume, has a chapter upon — Diseases of an 
incurable nature, the consequences of a long con- 
tinued Stricture, before the proper means of re- 
moving it had been adopted. 

Among the consequences of Stricture also may 
be noticed a shrinking and dwindling of the pejus, 
with but little erectile power, but to a much greater 
or more serious extent than mentioned before ; as 
in the slightest degree the removal of the stricture 
restores its natural state. 

A similar state of wasting of the testicles is also 
a consequence of stricture. 

The last to notice upon the consequences of stric- 
ture is Impotence. 

This may occur with or without the loss of sexual 
inclination. 

There are two ways in which a stricture may be 
the cause of impotence — the one mechanical, the 
other functional. In the first, the function of the 
testicles is performed, but the fluid is impeded in 
its passage, or its impetus so broken as to fail in 
accomplishing its destined purpose. 

In the second, the function of the testes seems to 
be disordered, so as to have lost its essential and 
vivifying principle. 

This is no difficult thing to imagine, when the 
nervous structure of the organs, and the exquisite 
sympathies depending on them are considered. 



CONSEQUENCES OF STRICTURE. 93 

And, further, this opinion is supported by the 
fact of so many strictured persons having no children. 

These are the consequences of ' Stricture, and 
when to them is added those sympathetic affections 
which were arranged among its symptoms, together 
with the expense and suffering, and keen reflection 
which is naturally connected with this disorder, it 
will be seen with what propriety it is urged in 
every one to be careful as to whose care he intrusts 
the cure of Gonorrhoea. 

All these consequences are perfectly unnecessary, 
and would be avoided if the same good sense were 
exercised in selecting a proper person in this com- 
plaint as would be in any other. 

Stricture is a curable disease, especially in its first 
stages, and fortunately with many, this first stage 
continues for a length of time. 

It is fortunate, also that its principle of cure is 
simple, easy and certain. . 

Treatment of Stricture. 

There are three means of cure for Stricture, oc- 
cupying the order in which they are enumerated, as 
to the propriety of their choice, depends in some 
degree upon the nature of the obstacle to overcome : 
1st, dilation by the use of bougies: 2d, by the ap- 
plication of caustic, and 3d, by the use of the 
armed lancet, which cuts or divides the passage. 



94 TREATMENT OF STRICTURE. 

In recent cases of stricture, the author has been 
remarkably successful in curing very many with in- 
ternal remedies, although dilation, in the hands of 
New- York and Boston practitioners, had failed to 
have any beneficent effect. I would therefore re- 
commend all laboring under this annoying and pain- 
ful disease, to make a trial of internal medicines 
calculated to dilate the passage and reduce the in- 
flammation of the urethra, previous to resorting to 
the more severe modes before alluded to. In fact 
the writer will guarantee a cure in ordinary cases, 
without the use of bougies, caustic or the knife, and 
those who may feel disposed 'to place themselves 
under my treatment, can depend upon such an 
effect being produced. We have in our possession 
scores of certificates, with liberty to publish them, 
where patients have found a cure under our peculiar 
mode of treatment, although pronounced incurable 
by some of the so-called best medical talent in the 
United States; but such a course is unnecessary, 
neither would we wish to fill our little treatise with 
such matter when others of more interest to the 
reader, would be perused with usefulness and benefit. 



Note T — I would refer my readers to the Appendix of this 
work where will be found extracts from correspondence, 
certificates and opinions of the press, in relation to the suc- 
cess which has attended ray treatment of tho aforesaid dis- 
eases ; as well as others of which I shall hereafter tret; 
together with remarks of* immeasurable interest to the 
general reader. 



SENSUALISM. 95 



SENSUALISM, 

Its General Results, Mental, Moral 

and Physical. 



There is no study more interesting or useful than 
that of the admirable relation existing between the 
structure of any of the organs of the human frame, 
and the natural and healthful actions these organs 
are destined to perform. 

These relative connections are so close and imme- 
diate, so essential, not merely to our personal comfort, 
but to the happiness and well-being of that social 
circle, either enlivened by our presence, or embittered 
by our distresses, that it becomes an absolute duty, as 
well as our highest interest, to familiarize the mind 
with the wise economy of animal nature. 

These remarks apply with the greatest amount of 
force to those sub-divisions of the living system, 
respecting which it may be truly affirmed, that if 
the consequences of irregularity be not immediate, 
they are ultimately as deplorable as their approach 
has been insidious. 

If the stomach be rilled to' repletion, if some im- 
proper irritant be received within its cavity, if the 
digestive organs be oppressed with acid crudities, 
vomiting or increased action of the intestinal canal, 



96 SENSUALISM. 

from the natural and instantaneous relief, under the 
pressure and presence of the unheal thful load, na- 
ture resumes her wonted elasticity of tone ; the 
balance of harmonious action is restored; if the 
impropriety be not too frequently repeated, the 
general health of the system undergoes no material 
deterioration. 

The stomach, unlike other organs, cannot be 
lashed into the gratification of appetite with un- 
natural readiness ; it is endowed with the power of 
instantly disengaging that which if retained will be 
productive of disease; but the, case is widely differ- 
ent if we transfer this reasoning from the nutritive 
or digestive organs, to the generative or reproduc- 
tive system ; for such is the mysterious connections 
between our mental and purely corporeal and phy- 
sical nature — such the readiness with which the 
organs of the reproductive organs obey the stimulus 
of a morbidly sensitive, inflamed and excited 
imagination, that under its influence, poor wearied, 
jaded nature, fain willing to recruit her exhausted 
energies by time and repose, is roused again and 
again to emissions of the seminal secretion, which is 
the most elaborate and valuable fluid of the human 
frame. 

In many instances the form of excess is natural 
as the act, and the mischief resulting from its fre- 



SENSUALISM. 97 



quency, will of course be limited by the capability 
of its performance, 

But it may be, (which is deplorable beyond the 
power of language to depict,) that this access as- 
sumes a horrible unnatural character, and in this 
instance it is impossible to define the limits of these 
mental and moral disquietudes, the nature and ex- 
quisite acuteness of those sufferings which follow in 
the train. 

It is a remarkable fact, that the miserable victims 
of sexual excess, more especially those addicted to 
self-pollution, (where the loss is greater and more 
frequent than in the natural act,) are especially 
prone to insanity; or if reason maintain her tot- 
tering throne, it is only that of deeripitude and 
premature loss of manly power. 

In conformation of this remark, I quote the high 
authority of the late Dr. John Armstrong. He 
observes in his published lectures, " Excess of ve- 
nery and the solitary vice of Onanism excite mad- 
ness ; they both stimulate the heart excessively ; 
they both tend to gorge the brain and spinal cord, 
and they tend to render the individual mad. 

In another place he remarks : " The same state 
(insanity) may arise from certain solitary practices ; 
and I know of no individuals whose state is so de- 
plorable as theirs, who give themselves up as slaves 
to unbridled passions." 



98 SENSUALISM. 

There are also specific forms of local and consti- 
tutional diseases resulting from venereal excesses, 
which must not be omitted in the black catalogue 
of the consequences of sensualism. 

These are the results of infectious contamination ; 
some of them inflicting much suffering, yet restricted 
to the production of constitutional disorder; others 
terminating in such changes of stricture as lay the 
foundation for future years of agony and shame. 

Thus the poison of gonorrhoea, ordinarily exciting 
nothing beyond specific yet temporary inflammation, 
of the mucous membrane of the canal leading to 
the bladder, though attended with exquisite torture, 
subsides under judicious treatment, after a lapse of 
a short period, and no permanent injury to the 
generative organs is afterwards perceptible. 

But in other cases, the inflammatory action being 
of a severer character, the poison more intense, or 
the constitutional susceptibilities more acute; we 
find that thickening of the delicate membrane of 
the urinary canal lays the foundation of permanent 
and often incurable disorganization, ordinarily term- 
ed stricture. 

Here then, we have an absolutely diseased devia- 
tion from the natural conformation essential to the 
healthy action of the generative organs; retention 
of urine ; (often till the miserable patient has been 
known to have perished from bursting of the blad- 



der,) the paiu connected with the frequent introduc- 
tion cf the bougie for the evacuation of that cavity; 
these form only a part of the dreadful penalty ap- 
pended to the folly of illicit excesses. 

Inaptitude for the rational indulgences of the 
marriage bed; the shame, vexation, and suffering 
inflicted upon a warm, passionate, yet virtuous wife ; 
the embarassment and struggling pain co-incident 
with every attempt to gratify legitimate desires ; all 
are the ultimate consequences of stricture. 

Melancholy has been the fate of modern times, 
since the venereal poison was first known and prop- 
agated, and sad are the sensations which must 
naturally arise in the mind of eveiy friend of hu- 
manity, who considers its nature and progress. 

This destructive agent acts not merely upon 
individual life, but it contaminates its very spring, 
transmitting its horrid influence to generations yet 
unborn. 

It embitters life's sweetest enjoyments, separates 
husband and wife, parents from the affection of their 
children, and inflicts a stab upon domestic peace ; 
which however forgivingly the tender look of wo- 
man's eye may heal the offensive wound, a scar 
remains upon memory and affection while life 
endures. 

It breaks down the vigor of lusty youth, covering 
the body with loathsome ulcers, or destroying the 



100 SENSUALISM. 

bones, and thus defacing +he manly beauty of the 
human face divine. 

The sonorous voice exchanges its deep rich tones 
for a pitiable, contempible, nasal twang ; thus 
compelling the miserable victim, with every word he 
indistinctly utters, to pronounce his own shame. 

Such are the revolting features of Syphilitic 
disorganization; its horrible mutilations are shud- 
deringly hateful beyond description ; to crawl upon 
the face of this fair earth, a noisome mass of living 
rottenness ; to waste into hideous decay, from slowly 
consuming disease and pain — which leaves the 
mind in full consciousness to brood over past folly ; 
to defile the germ of humanity at the very threshold 
and onset of its being, to transmit the seeds of 
disease to innocent helpless infancy ; — to hear the 
feeble, husky wail, and look upon the hue which 
makes the contamination of the child which hangs 
at the breast of a fond and virtuous mother — that 
child which ought to constitute the pride and joy of 
a father's heart, but to whom his first has been a 
feeble, puny and diseased organization; the coun- 
terpart of his own, the transcript of his own excesses ; 
— surely if there be within, one latent spark of 
sensibility, that infant cry will harrow his inmost 
feeling, will chase it out, will lash us with a scorpion 
whip, or, feeble though, it be, speak in dread whis- 
pers to the remorseful soul. 



SENSUALISM. 101 



Possibly the victim of sensualism may have been 
spared the pains of parental agony, no wife may be 
there to pity and forgive, — paid mercenaries sur- 
round the couch — he has run the round of guilty 
pleasure, thus giddy and weak, he falls upon that 
couch to die ; the wreck of youth, and hope, of life, 
together blended in one awful desolation. 

Who among us is not familiar with the history 
of some once promising youth whose noon-tide of 
sun existence has been thus in tears and death be 
clouded ? 

To die — so to sink into the grave, to be remem- 
bere 1 only with fearful regret, to forego the 
affectionate recollections of surviving friends. 

These form the slight, yet faithful outlines of a 

stern reality, and if the contemplation of the picture, 

deter but one thoughtless youth from the path of 

! folly, how much of human misery may thereby be 

prevented. 

It is salutary to ponder over the consequences of 
sensualism — her fascinations derive more than half 
i their charms from our ignorance of the hidden sting 
j that in the end will " bite like an adder." 

Were these results ever present in all their power 
I and permanency, could we strip the gaudy flattering 
! mask from present sensual gratification, surely we 
j should pause, rather than with reckless, desperate, 



102 SENSUALISM. 

heedlessness, rush upon disease, misery and ruin ; 

for 

" Vice is a monster of such frightful mein, 
That to be hated needs but to be seen*" 

The late Sir Astley Cooper, observes : " If one 
of these miserable cases could be depicted from the 
pulpit as an illustration of the evil effects 
of a vicious and intemperate course of life, it would, 
I think strike the mind with more terror than all 
the preaching in the world. The irritable state of 
the patient leads to the destruction of life, and in 
this way", annually great numbers perish. Un- 
doubtedly the list is considerably augmented, from 
the maltreatment and the employment of injudicious 
remedies." 

In the infancy of medical science, . the wisest 
practice was but empirical, and though it must be 
admitted, we are yet advanced little further than 
the threshold of those sublime portals which ever 
stand invitingly open to the laborious lover of truth, 
yet it is something to know, that the absurd 
remedies of ancient days are worse than useless ; it 
is beyond conception, valuable to hold the torch of 
science to the book of nature, and to apply our 
existing amount of knowledge to the elucidation 
of the causes, and the mitigation and cause of 
disease. 

It is well understood,, that in reference to Syphilitic 
cases, the majority of deaths arise from mismanage- 



SENSUALISM. 103 



ment, improper treatment, or the abuse of active 
and powerful medicinal preparations, by those who 
suffering from these diseases, from timidity, fear, or 
shame, rather venture upon the hazardous experi- 
ment of self-cure, than to consult at once a practi- 
tioner, who has devoted the energies of a laborious 
life in their exclusive study. 

No position appears theoretically so clear and un- 
deniable, yet there is none which some are so 
unwilling to act upon as this, that division of energy, 
concentration of attention, necessarily produces the 
same beneficial results in the practice of the healing 
art, as is obvious in the various other departments 
of human effort. 

Even in the surgical profession, have not con- 
firmations been forced upon us of the truth of this 
principle ? 

The victims of delusive and repugnant practices, 
misguided by counterfeit pleasure* reflect not that 
all deviations from the just laws of nature, are 
ultimately punished by the biting strings of disease 
and shame. 

One of the most elegant writers of the English 
language, after enforcing the importance of self- 
control, and its happy effects in the promotion of 
peace of mind and longevity, energetically remarks : 

" May I govern my passions with absolute sway, 
And grow wiser and better as life wears away." 



104 SENSUALISM, 



What a momentous change would be effected in 
the moral condition of man, were he to listen to the 
friendly warnings of the inward monitor. 

Let not the victim of sensualism lay the flatter- 
ing unction to his soul, that from the eye of his 
fellow mortals he can conceal his vice. 

It is written upon his forehead, it is enstamped 
upon his visage ; his sunken countenance, his frail, 
stolid, inexpressive face, his lustless eye, his attenuat- 
ed frame, his quick abashed retreat from the gaze 
of virtuous women; all proclaim the enfeebled 
votary of sensualism. 

Here then, is the fulfillment, in one form of that 
prediction : " There is nothing done in secret that 
shall not be revealed, neither hid even from men 
that shall not be known." How much more inti- 
mately to the Omniscient God ? 

It is fabled of the Ostrich that she is devoid of 
reasoning intelligence as to hide her head from her 
pursuers in the nearest thicket, unconscious that her 
enormous body is unconcealed. 

And can a stronger illustration of the effects of 
sensualism in darkening the understanding, than is 
found in the fact, that the victims of solitary vice 
dare to gratify their depraved propensity in the 
admitted gaze of the Omnipresent Eye, while they 
would redden with shame to be detected in the act 



SENSUALISM. 105 

by a child, or even the meanest mortal that lives ? 
Horrible perversity of nature's keenest pleasure. 

How stupifying is that infatuation, which delib- 
erately, yet secretly, poisons the power of manly 
enjoyment ? — deprives the lord of this fair world 
of those temperate gratifications, which the great 
Author of Creation has permitted, nay, positively 
enjoined and commanded. " Increase and multiply 
that you may replenish the earth," is alike the 
dictate of nature and revelation ; the sufferer then 
of the violation of this provision ; his living death, 
is but the first consequence of his criminality. 

However the Scottish poet Burns might feel dis- 
posed to "waive the quantum o' the sin," or 
however in a work intended for practical use, we 
may feel disposed to refrain from moralizing on the 
nature of vice, or with him, think lightly of " the 
hazard o' concealing," we cannot pass lightly over 
its results, inasmuch as there are physical, as well 
as moral and mental; and it can only be a just ap- 
plication of the character of these results, that 
wise curative intentions can be founded. 

Mental and moral aberations require, and abso- 
lutely demand treatment, having reference to a 
morbid train of thought. 

For, apart from other considerations, as it is true 
of every form of vice, so most especially of this : 



• It hardens a* within, 



And petrifies the feelin'. 



106 SENSUALISM. 

It is recorded of Archbishop Cranmer, that being 
brought to the stake, in those troublesome times, 
when religious frenzy, and political fury were prodi- 
gally reckless of human life, he exclaimed in the 
torments of the fire, as he thrust his right arm 
amidst the glowing faggots, u That unworthy 
hand: 1 

With that hand he had signed his recantation ; 
and when the light of truth enables the poor victim 
of detestable vice, to utter against himself a similar 
apostrophe, the consequence of his folly are all that 
remain to be overcome. 

The willing slave of corruption sinks fast into 
premature wretchedness, as his enjoyments are 
illusory ; so unreal miseries throng his pathway, and 
strew with thorns his cold, dark and dreary passage 
to the grave. 

The deliberate destroyer of his own soul — his 
end is darknes remorse and despair. 

Thefe are men in whom every sense of vital 
sensation and enjoyment is exhausted, in whom 
every germ of activity and happiness is so deadened, 
that they find nothing so insipid, so disagreeable, bo 
disgustful as life ; they no longer have any sympa- 
thies in common with their fellow men ; the pitiable 
slaves of unbridled passion, it is given to them to 
know and feel their degradation. Existence becomes 



SENSUALISM* 107 

an oppressive burthen. They cannot withstand the 
wish to 

" Shuffle off this mortal coil." 

They have found by painful experience, that the 
immoderate and exclusive pursuit of gratifications 
of animal nature, tend to the destruction of all 
capacity and all legitimate enjoyment. 

These unfortunate beings all for the most part, 
such as by youthful dissipation, by too early and 
profuse waste of the seminal fluid, have exhausted 
the flagging powers of life and ante-dated, in the 
bloom of youth, the decripetude of old age. 

To such I would extend the friendly aid, which 
ere madness and incurable impotency precluded the 
attempt, may yet snatch the poor weak sufferer 
from a worse than living death. 

With many, the hour of self-devotion is still dis- 
tant. The consequences of criminal indulgence may 
not now be very apparent or the nervous ailments 
besetting the unhappy patient, may be ascribed ig- 
norantly to any but the true cause. 

However, ill habits rapidly acquire the form of ex- 
alted vice, subjecting reason, appetite and passion, 
under indiscriminate control. 

To the fearful I offer the way of escape from the 
dominion, as well as the consequences of sensualism. 

To him whom in the divine light of reason is not 
altogether obscured; to the poor misguided, yet 
unwilling slave of perverted enjoyment, I offer th'e 



108 SENSUALISM. 

means of restoration to pristine vigor, and the en- 
joyment of a pleasing home. 

There are many of our youths of the present day, 
who by excessive indulgence and unnatural over- 
stimulation of those organs, the developement of 
which is peculiar to manhood, have called into active 
disease the lungs or the brain. 

Predispositions, otherwise so latent, as with care 
to be kept at bay during a long existence, have been 
nursed by early sensualism into forms of consump- 
tive disease, of accurately resembling true scrofulous 
phthisics as to defy (while the cause is undetected,) 
the ordinary modes adopted for the mitigation of its 
most urgent symptoms. 

Among the ordinary causes of disease enumerat- 
ed by practical physicians, none are so prominently 
obvious as excessive evacuations, produced naturally 
or otherwise ; and it is undoubtedly true, that super- 
vening or extraordinary excitement, the weaker 
organs of a naturally robust frame, will be the first 
to feel the loss of nervous or sensorical energy of 
that power, which, carefully guarded is our surest 
protection, in warding off the attacks of disease, 
and our most powerful ally in resisting its noxious 
agency when present. 

Loss of blood, if repeated, even though trivial in 
quantity, is a sure and readily acknowledged index 
of corresponding failure " of the vital powers ; but 



SENSUALISM. 109 

the daily drain upon the nervous system from the 
loss of the most curiously elaborate secretion from 
the blood, is still more rapidly destructive. 

The debility produced by this evacuation is greater 
than any other, inasmuch as important and exten- 
sive portions of the brain are concerned in the pro- 
duction of this secretion. 

The miserable victim of unbridled sensualism 
sinks into the grave, harrassed with cough and hectic 
fever, the cause of death being mostly ascribed, 
loosely, and with unpardonable neglect, to disease 
of the lungs or heart ; whereas had a confession of 
the true state of the case been confidently reposed 
in the proper quarter, a varying treatment, or 
the moral or mental management of the unhappy 
sufferer, might have been attended with widely 
varying results. 

It is a matter of equal surprise and regret, that 
the legitimate guardians of the public health, are 
not sufficiently alive to the pre valency of sensualism 
as the exciting cause of disease, unless with a gen- 
tleness and address that few can assume, or really 
possess, the secret be extorted from the pining 
sufferer, it is hardly probable that voluntarily the 
important disclosures should be made to the usual 
medical attendant of the family. 

His silence is doubtlessly often ascribed to ignor- 
ance, aptly, or both. 



110 SENSUALISM. 

The customs of society, the usages of the pro- 
fession, seemingly forbid such inquiries ; the fear, 
the suspicion, may be false, the consequences result- 
ing from questions conveying unmanly imputations, 
these may often operate on the minds of medical 
men, in leading them to observe absolute silence on 
such topics. 

The natural and inevitable result of this inatten- 
tion to one of the most ordinary of the exciting 
causes of disease is, that patients of this class, who 
are unfortunately placed under the care of the 
family physician, meet for the most part, at his 
hands, a mode of treatment which only serves to 
aggravate existing evils. 

Anomalous cases are of frequent recurrence in 
persons of both sexes, where langor, lassitude, and 
general inaptitude for the business or enjoyments of 
life, perhaps constant head-ache or pain in the 
limbs, irritable cough, irregularity in the action of 
the heart, or most commonly of all, that long train 
of hypochondriacal disorders connected with indi- 
gestion, form the subject of complaint in the eaf 
of the routine practitioner. 

Let persons thus suffering be brought under the 
ordinary cognizance of medical art ; under the eye 
of one, who has not deemed it compatible with his 
professional dignity, to devote special attention to 
the mischevious effects of self-abuse ; and if his pa- 



SENSUALISM. Ill 

tient complain of headache, lie will most probably 
prescribe such depletory remedies as are applicable 
with propriety, only to an over-gorged brain. 

What must be the consequence if pain arise, not 
from repletion of the vessels of the head, but as we 
know it EBay, from exhaustion cf nervous or senso- 
rial power, from sexual excesses, from the constant 
irritation and drain upon thj secretory apparatus 
of the generative system ? 

A patient » already exhausted by undue excite- 
ment, is ignorantly subjected, to a mode of treatment 
which is injurious in exact proportion as it is 
erroneous. 

The feeble remains of vitality left him by his 
pernicious practices are sure to be overthrown and 
destroyed, " Secundem artem " by the " usual 
remedies." 

Here, then, arises a proof of the importance 
and necessity of the arrangement, whereby some 
well informed members of the medical profession, 
should devote their exclusive* attention to the dis- 
eases arising from the undue excitement of the 
generative system, together with those incidental 
forms of acute disorders, which, if neglected, ter- 
minate in the horribly wasting forms of constitutional 
disorganization. The hidden entrance of these 
avenues to the grave is often the long indulged 
and concealed habits of self-pollution. 



112 SENSUALISM. 

Now, whatever may be the amount of individual 
talent, or however successful the general treatment 
of a popular practitioner, in the ordinary run of 
cases, death maintains the silence of his sanctuary, 
or the climate is assigned as the congenial harb inger 
of consumption; the untold secret is preserved 
inviolable in the cold receptable of medical errors 
and stately professional ignorance; his reputation 
suffers not. 

What I would urge upon the serious consideration 
of the reader, is this, that a person totally unac- 
customed to detect and investigate such cases, is 
absolutely unfit and unlikely to succeed in his first 
attempt. 

His hand, his eye, his touch require to be trained 
to the well practiced effort. 

He must possess the incommunicable tact requis- 
ite, first to gain, and afterwards to' secure the 
confidence of his patient. 

He must be able to sympathise with the de- 
plorable weakness of iis nature, form a rational 
estimate of the power and prevalency of mere ani- 
mal impulse, and possess that deep acquaintance 
with the human heart, which will enable him to 
correct with tenderness its perverted wanderings. 

Unhappily there has long existed in this country, 
an aversion among medical "practitioners, to the 
selection of this peculiar department of duty; the 



LEUCORRHOEA. 113 

diseases of women and children, practical midwifery, 
the operative surgery of the eye or ear, dentition 
and the diseases of the teeth; these have formed 
for many of the most distinguished ornaments of 
| our profession, the ready avenue to scientific distinc- 
tion and personal wealth. 

I am conscious that in selecting a peculiar de- 
partment of practice, I have been, and am the in- 
| strument of much practical good; and that I have 
not lived in vain. 

The grateful eye of the returning wanderer, the 
rosy hue of health, on the previously blanched 
cheek of premature manhood — these are the tro- 
phies of usefulness, and they carry to the heart a 
more than ample exchange for the sneers of the 
ignorant , or the envy of the malicious. 



LEUCORRHOEA, 

Commonly termed "Female Weakness," j 
or "Whites." 



This disorder consists, essentially, in a deranged 
condition of the organs of generation, originating 
sometimes in the sexual organs alone. 

It may be induced by various causes, such as 

any long g continued illness — a damp, unhealthy 



114 LEUCORRHOEA. 

residence — having children too fast — sexual ex- 
cesses — Gonorrhoea, &c., &c. 

But in delicate and nervous females, it frequently 
comes on without these intervening causes, and it 
becomes as it were, the settled habit of the con- 
stitution. 

It does not, however, thus invade the constitution 
without disturbing one of its most important func- 
tions, for it eventually leads to Barrenness. 

There is also a most unfortunate coincidence to 
struggle with in those who are the subjects of this 
complaint, for it affects the constitution in such a way 
as to react upon, and increase the original disorder. 

If, for instance, it originates in weakness of the 
sexual organs, this, sooner or later, involves and 
debilitates the constitution, and thus keeps up and 
augments the original weakness ; or, if it begin in 
general nervous debility, this weakneng discharge 
occurring, greatly augments that nervous debility. 

There is scarcely a complaint which the constitu- 
tion suffers more under an<f has less power to 
overcome without the aid of suitable assistance. 

This may be clearly seen by reflecting on the 
influence which the uterine system is wont to exer- 
ert on the stomach and digestive organs. 

That train of distressing symptoms which so 
frequently occurs in a state of pregnancy, is a strik- 
ing illustration of this fact. 



LEUCORRHOEA. 115 

Numerous as these are, they all proceed from 
the effect the womb has upon the stomach, enfeeb- 
ling and deranging its digestive functions. 

The same effects are produced by this complaint, 
the "Whites," but with this difference, the de- 
rangment of the digestive organs from pregnancy 
is but for a limited duration, while that from 
weakness of the sexual organs is unlimited and 
perpetual. 

Again, by tracing the sad inroad this disorder 
makes upon the constitution, it will be further seen 
how justly it merits every care and anxiety to 
remove it ; for, beside the disapointment of a family, 
which it is frequently the cause of, there is nothing 
which more certainly fades the youthful countenance, 
and prematurely leads to the feelings and infirmities 
of age. 

The first effect of this never ceasing influence on 
the stomach is to weaken its digestive power, by 
which the blood becomes poor and watery. 

This is seen by the pale and sunken countenance, 
or bloated state of body, which always more or less 
attends it. 

Then follows an unequal circulation of the blood ; 
the strength of the body being not sufficient to 
maintain its equal distribution, some parts have too 
little and some too much; the feet are generally 
cold, maiking too low a circulation in them, while 



116 LBUCORRHOEA. 



the head is almost always over-charged, frequently 
leading the sufferer to suppose that bleeding would 
do good, than which by the way, nothing would be 
more disastrous. 

Headache, however, arising from this cause, is one 
only of along train of nervous symptoms, varying 
in degree and kind, but continuing to harrass and 
embitter life to its very latest moments. 

One of the frequent causes of Leucorrhoea, may 
be traced to errors in living, imprudence in dress, 
and that artificial life so common in society. 

How often do we see the simple teachings of 
nature rejected, and mind and body warped and 
compelled to bend to the dictates of fashion, or fol- 
low the lead of an absurd and diseased imagination ? 

Need we wonder that where the passions are 
stimulated, and the mind excited by the luxuries 
and stimulants of the table, the excitements of the 
ball room or theatre, and the glowing and sometimes 
impure pages of a certain class of fiction, a reaction 
should be produced both on the mind and body. 

The milder forms of this disease are frequently 
allowed to run on for a long time before any medical 
advice is taken. 

The character of the discharge depends upon the 
seat and severity of the disease. When the dis- 
charge is considerable, and of some standing, decided 
effect is produced on the system. 



LEUCORRHOEA. 117 

The countenance becomes pale and sallow, the 
frame weak, the appetite impaired and capricious, 
the spirits languid, and exertion is attended with 
fatigue ; the bowels are irregular, and digestion dis- 
ordered ; pain in the back is also felt when fatigued, 
and a peculiar dragging, bearing down and -weary 
sensation. 

The discharge in these cases is of a mucous 
character, and may not be very abundant. 

An acute form of Leucorrhoea, generally the 
effects of a cold, or some irritating cause, consists of 
a profuse watery or purulent discharge, attended 
with local soreness and pain. 

The vagina is hot and tender to the touch ; fever 
is also present. 

When the discharge is more scanty and glairy, or 
creamly or opaque, it is an indication that the neck 
of the womb is affected. 

Leucorrhoea may end in the chronic form when 
the discharge is more or less profuse and constant, 
mucous or purulent, or a mixture of both ; it may 
also become green and purulent. 

The quantity may also be abundant, amounting 
in some cases to a pint in twenty-four hours, and 
expelled in gushes on every change of posture. 

In these cases there is great emaciation and de- 
bility. There may be a dragging pain in the back, 



118 LEUCORRHOEA. 

palpitation of the heart, night sweats, difficult re- 
spiration, and swelling of the feet. 

- Treatment. 

In the successful treatment of this disease, very 
much depends on the physical and mental condition 
of the patient. 

The food may be nourishing, but taken at the 
proper time, and be as little stimulating as possible. 

Late suppers, wines and all kinds of dissipation 
should be avoided. Moderate exercise in the open 
air will be productive of good, but care should be 
taken to avoid much fatigue. 

o 

Particular attention should- be given to the 
dress. The feet should be well protected from 
the damp ground, the clothing warm and com- 
fortable, fiting loosely to the body, and the skirts 
instead of being permitted to hang upon the hips, 
held up by means of shoulder straps or braces. — 
Cultivate a healthy tone of mind. Cast aside the 
exciting romance f and mingle only in those amuse- 
ments which will have a tendency to produce a 
healthy action on the mind and body. 

The remedy on which I place the most depen- 
dence in 'treating this disease, is Iodide of Iron. 
Nothing can exceed its happy effect as a tonic, and 
its use is eagerly continued by the patient. It may 
be used in doses of from ten increasing to thirty 



LEUCORRHOEA. 119 



drops, twice a day. The bowels should be kept in 
a natural and healthy condition, using as a means 
of doing so, small doses of Turkey Mftubarb, but 
avoiding powerful or drastic purgatives. Injections 
will be found of eminent utility, and can be pre- 
pared according to the following formula : 

! Acetate Lead, one ounce. 
Tine Opii., two drams. 
Cold soft water, one quart. 

Stir until dissolved and use three times a day, 
with a female syringe. Under the above course of 
treatment the discharge is usually stopped in a very 
few days ; and by the use of Iodide of Iron, the 
vagina and surrounding parts become healthy and 
vigorous. In regard to diseases of the womb and 
the use of the Speculum in their treatment, some 
patients object to its introduction, and show ah 
unwillingness to its application. Any intelligent 
female, if the physician she consults be a gentle- 
man, will never object to any measure he may 
propose for her benefit, provided she can be satisfied 
of its utility and necessity. 



120 PROLAPSUS UTERI. 



PROLAPSUS UTERI. 

Falling of the Womb, 



Falling of the womb is a very common affection, 
especially among females who have children, al- 
though it is occasionally met with in unmarried 
females and those who have never given birth to 
children. 

It is occasioned by a weakness of the ligaments, 
which give support to the womb, and also by a 
weakness of the walls of the vagina. 

We frequently find it the result of sitting up too 
soon after delivery, and also by violent vomiting, 
coughing or sneezing, by lifting heavy weights and 
a general weakness of the system. 

The patient complains of a sensation of fullness 
of the pelvis^ of weight and bearing down and 
dragging from the loins. There is more or less 
pain in the back, extending round the groins. 

The patient is worse in the evening than in the 
morning, and the symptoms are aggravated by much 
exertion. 

Leucorrhoea is generally an attending symptom, 
although the discharge may vary, occasionally very 
profuse, sometimes slight, but in all cases diminish- 
ing the strength of the constitution. 



PROLAPSUS UTERI. 121 

In some cases the womb only falls lower than it 
ought to do ; but in others it protrudes beyond the 
external parts. 

Before the tumor appeal's outwardly, there is 
sometimes a considerable discharge of the mucous 
fluid, but this is greatly lessened when the protu- 
sion takes place. 

A falling of the womb, although a local disease, 
is often productive of distressing symptoms which 
injure the woman's general health; and these arise 
from the functions of the stomach and bowels being 
impaired, and the nervous system somewhat 
affected, 

The cure of prolapsus is to absolutely avoid every 
cause. To live aright; dress aright; refrain from 
all causes of exhaustion and observe every condition 
of health. 

There is never prolapsus without dyspepsia, and 
this must be cured. 

There is never prolapsus without general debility, 
and the patient must have general invigoration. 

There is seldom prolapsus without many nervous 
sensations, pain and a dragging sensation at the 
small of the back 5 bearing down, painful efforts at 
stool ; sense of oppression, or goneness at the pit 
of the heart, sadness and low spirits; weakness 
of the knees; general exhaustion. 



122 PROLAPSUS UTERI. 

These sometimes confine the patient entirely, 
and always greatly interfere with her usefulness and 
enjoyments. 

Prolapsus may be accompanied by anteversion, 
a turning forward, and more rarely retroversion, or 
a turning backward of the uterus. 

The latter sometimes takes place at an early 
stage of pregnancy, when the mouth of the uterus 
presses against the neck of the bladder, while the 
fundus or the large part, rests against the rectum, 
and is pressed down by the foeces. 

In this case the patient must have immediate 
relief, by drawing off the water in the bladder,, and 
moving the bowels, when the organ will usually as- 
sume its right position. If not, it may be placed 
right by careful manipulation. As all displacements 
depend upon prolapsus we have only to cure the 
latter difficulty. 

The general treatment of this disease, is that 
which belongs to dyspepsia, or its other complica- 
tions. It is to be especially invigorating. 

In many cases, animal food, in small quantities, 
has a direct effect in aggravating uterine diseases. 



PREGNANCY". 123 



PREGNANCY, 

Its Symptoms, &c. 



The birth of a child is at once the most wonder- 
ful and sublime act of exisetnce. 

Existence itself assumes a mightier import to the 
mother as she gazes on the little being whose pure 
eyes are turned towards hers, whose form clasped 
to her bosom, thrills through all her being, and 
unseals the fountain of a deathless love. 

Springing from herself — a part of herself, for 
two hundred and seventy days nourished in her 
womb, commencing from an almost imperceptible 
germ, and growing on day by day, drawing life 
itself from her, until at length a miniature human 
being, it is folded in her arms, with a body, a part 
of herself, and a soul a part of God, deathless and 
eternal. 

Another ripple is started in the great ocean of 
life, whose widening circles are lost from mortal 
gaze in the ocean of eternity. 

It is desirable, and frequently of first import- 
ance, to be able to know whether a female is 
pregnant or not, both to the accoucher and to the 
individual, or even to be able to judge whether 
she is probably or possibly so or not. 



124 ' PREGNANCY. 

Sometimes this can be decided positively, but 
more frequently it is a matter of uncertainty. 

The presumption and positive signs on which a 
judgement can be formed are of various kinds and 
most of which can be readily observed and easily 
made use of by any person in possession of the 
necessary information. 

The presumptive signs of pregnancy are only of 
value in the first three months. 

They consist mainly of certain nervous and or- 
ganic derangements and of certain changes in 
personal appearance. 

It is scarcely possible to enumerate all these, nor 
is it necessary; I shall therefore only specify those 
most important, and most generally met with. 

I have frequently known various direases of the 
womb, complicated with disease in other parts of 
the system, so closely to resemble pregnancy, as to 
deceive many. 

Hence the necessity of great caution and accuracy. 
In making up our minds we should not be too posi- 
tive, unless undubitable evidence be present. If we 
are doubtful let us say so. 

Our opinion must not be formed on one, but on 
the concurrence or the assemblage of reliable symp- 
toms. 

The following are the symptoms of pregnancy : 
1. The Menses. — If the menses are arrested, 
and the female had previously been both regular and 



PREGNANCY. 125 

she has taken cold — and, more than all, if, added 
to this there is no dizziness of the head — there is 
a very strong probability that she is pregnant. 

If the female, after sexual intercourse since her 
last menstruation, has experienced any sudden ex- 
citement or change of system, as chills, lassitude, 
&c, without any known adequate cause, it affords 
additional evidence that she has conceived. 

2. Morning Sickness. — In most cases, not 

all, a very distressing nausea or sickness, resemb- 
ling sea-sickness, is experienced, especially in the 
morning. 

3. Salivation. — There is sometimes in preg- 
n ancy a preternatural disposition to secrete saliva, 
and especially to spit what some term an u Eng- 
lish shilling? 

4. A short time after conception, there is often 
a preternatural fulness of the abdomen in the 
evening; but in the morning there is a perfect 
subsidence, and the abdomen appears even less 
than natural. 

5. The breast or mammary glands become larger 
than usual, the small papillae become elongated, 
and the circle around it becomes of a darker hue. 

The milk is sometimes secreted early in pregnancy, 
and toward the end it often escapes from the nipple. 

6. The urine is generally more abundant, and 
more pale and limpid. 



126 PREGNANCY. 

V. Neck Of the Uterus.— In the early part 
of pregnancy, the neck of the womb becomes lower 
in the vagina and as it advances, the neck shortens. 

8. A gradual and prominent enlargement of the 
abdomen, of a peculiar rotundity, and a globular- 
like form, imparting a peculiar appearance and gait, 
easily recognized. 

9. The appetite is very capricious — sometimes 
the patient eating enormously ; at others, scarce]y 
able to eat at all. 

10. NervOUS System* — In most cases of 
pregnancy, there is great irritability of the nervous 
system. Cramps, numbness of the lower extremi- 
ties are sometimes accompaniments of pregnancy. 

If these symptoms generally are present, in the 
majority of cases the woman is pregnant, but not in 
all cases when present. 

The only infallible signs of pregnancy are — 

I The movement of the Child —not the 

woman's fancies; for many women have been de- 
ceived on this point. 

2. Beating of the Foetal Heart — By 

the stethoscope, or even by the naked ear, applied 
to the abdomen of the mother, the foetal heart can 
be heard to beat, at the rate of one hundred and 
thirty, to one hundred and forty per minute. 

When this is heard it is infallible; but we should 
never forget that a female may be pregnant, and 



PREGNANCY. 127 

neither of these signs be present, because neither of 
them are available after quickening, and even then 
the child may die. 

So that, although these last infallible signs when 
they are present, yet their absence does not as 
certainly prove the negative; since the child may 
he dead, or it may not have arrived at the age at 
which the test is available. 

Some women breed so easily as to experience 
hardly any kind of inconvenience whatever; while 
others are perfectly incapable of retaining the least 
thing on their stomach, and are thereby reduced to 
a state of extreme weakness. 

With some women vomiting will continue during 
the whole or a greater part of the second stage of 
pregnancy, as well as the first ; but this does not 
usually happen. 

Partial suppressions of urine, with a frequent 
disposition to avoid it, itching about the external 
parts of generation, costiveness, the piles, are 
what they are chiefly incommoded by during this 
period. 

Most women quicken about the fourth month 
after conception, at which time the mother becomes 
sensible of the slightest efforts of the child ; and be- 
sides the complaints just enumerated, she will then 
be liable to sudden faintings and slight hysteric 
affections. 



128 DURATION OF PREGNANCY. 

According to the commonly-received opinion, 
quickening, so termed, has been generally under- 
stood to commence at the time when particular 
sensations are perceived by the mother, supposed to 
be occasioned by the motion of the child. 

The usual time of feeling any such symptoms, is 
about the latter end of the fourth or the beginning 
of the fifth month of pregnancy; at this period; 
the uterus, filling up the pelvis, slips out and rises 
above the rim; and from that sudden transition, 
women of delicate constitution and irritable fibre 
are apt to faint, more particularly so if in an erect 
position. 

During the last three months, or third stage of 
pregnancy, general uneasiness, restlessness, (par- 
ticularly at nights,) costiveness, swelling of the 
feet, ankles and private parts, cramps in the legs 
and thighs, difficulty of retaining urine for any 
length of time, varicase swellings of the veins of 
the belly and lower extremities, and the piles, are 
the affections wnich usually prove most troublesome. 

In weak delicate women, of an irri table habit, 
convulsive fits sometimes arise which are ever to be 
regarded in a dangerous light. 

The Duration of Pregnancy. 

On this subject Dr. Huston, of Philadelphia, has 
the following: observations : 



DURATION OF PREGNANCY. 129 

"There can be no doubt but that, as a general 
rule, gestation in the human female is completed in 
about two hundred and eighty days ; but we have 
well attested cases on record in which it certainly 
continued much longer — sufficiently numerous, in- 
deed, to establish the fact that much variety occurs 
in that respect. 

" I have known at least two instances in which I 
had the strongest reasons for believing that it ex- 
tended, in one case, two weeks, and in the other 
three weeks, beyond the usual period, or nine calen- 
dar months. 

" It is undeniable that children are often born 
short of that period, healthy and well-grown ; and 
there is certainly no reason why nature should 
deviate from her accustomed course, in delaying, as 
well as in anticipating the time ; especially it is un- 
reasonable to deny that such deviations may occur 
in the human female, when it is known that it hap- 
pens every day with inferior animals that are far 
less exposed to the causes most likely to produce 
such irregularities." 

In making up our minds on the subject of the 
duration of pregnancy, we must allow considerable 
latitude in consequence; first, of the difficulty of 
at all times ascertaining the precise moment whSn 
conception takes place; and, secondly, from our 
knowledge of the peculiar organization of some 



130 MIDWIFERY. 



women, and the protracting influence which depres- 
sing passions may have on the duration of 
pregnancy in such cases. 

We have on record an account of the decision of 
a court of law in Europe, in favor of a lady who 
was delivered of a child ten months after the death 
of her husband; and from the reputation of the 
woman, and other circumstances, no doubt was 
entertained of the correctness of her statement. 

From all which facts, the physician and others 
must learn to be very guarded in their opinion in 
all cases where the character and reputation of the 
person is involved, and that we should all exercise 
great charity toward all those charged with guilt of 
this nature; especially when we remember that 
considerable variations frequently take place in the 
duration of the pregnancy of our domestic animals, 
of whose period of gestation we can keep an exact 
account. 



MIDWIFERY. 



By the term Midwifeiy, we understand the act 
of superintending and assisting nature, during par- 
turition or child-birth; and in a more extended 
sense, it implies the treatment of female and 
infantile diseases. 



MIDWIFERY. 131 

This branch of practice must have been coeval 
with the formation of society. The knowledge of 
it was, no doubt, first acquired by experience, and 
that probably induced by observing the phenomena 
of labor in the brute creation. 

Hippocrates was the first who wrote on this sub- 
ject, of which we have any knowledge ; he flourished 
about four hundred years before the christian era. 

This work was the chief guide of Midwives until 
the sixteenth century — after the revival of learning, 
and the invention of the art of printing — which 
comprises a period of two thousand years. 

In the early ages of the world, women alone 
officiated in child-birth. 

From the Scriptures it appears that, among the 
Jews, the practice of Midwifery was exclusively 
confined to females. 

Common history also informs us that this same 
practice prevailed among the ancient nations of 
Greece and Rome. 

In fact, we have no account, in the history of 
any nation, of men ever officiating in child-birth, 
(except in some desperate cases) until the sixteenth 
century. 

The question of man-midwifery has been much 
discussed of late in this country. 



132 MIDWIFERY. 

A Dr. Atwood was the first in the city of New 
York who had the confidence to advertise himself 
as a man-midwife, which he did in 1762. 

Dr. Bard, born and educated in Europe came to 
this country and established himself in practice in 
New York, and was chosen the first president of 
the fiist Medical College founded in this State. He 
was a judicious practitioner, and wrote a practical 
treatise on midwifery, for the use of midwives and 
students. It was the first published in this country, 
and probably the best that has been published. 

According to Astruc, the dutchess of Villiers, 
mistress to Louis XI Y. of France, was the first 
female who was induced to place herself under the 
exclusive obstetric care of a professor of surgery, 
without any anticipated necessity of a surgical 
operation. 

This took place in 1663; and the surgeon, Julian 
Clement, was conducted in diguise to the dwelling 
of his patient. 

The case terminated favorably, and he was soon 
after appointed accoucher to the princess of France. 

The examples thus set, spread rapidly among the 
aristocracy of France, and was imitated by other 
nations, until at length it has spread through every 
rank of civilized society. 

So indecent did it appear, before this time, for a 
man to be present at an ordinary labor, that one 



MIDWIFERY. 133 

Dr. Vites, of Hamburg, whose curiosity was greater 
than his judgment, was publicly branded for being 
present at one in female attire. Another writer 
says he was condemned to the flames. 

The objections to employing men are various and 
weighty, among which I would enumerate the 
following, from Beard's Midwifery. 

1. The practice has an immoral tendency. The 
great intimacy and confidence which exist between 
the physician and patient, gives the most unbounded 
liberties and temptations to the unprincipled and 
licentious to alienate their affections from their 
husbands. 

2. It is indelicate for men to attend on such 
occasions. 

3. The hands of men are larger, and are there- 
fore less calculated to manipulate when such practice 
is necessary. 

4. The presence of a man gives such a shock to 
the nervous system of some women in labor, as to 
arrest the pains, and sometimes completely to sus- 
pend them, and exerts a baneful and serious influence 
on the result. It was this, it is said, which proved 
fatal to the princess, Charlotte of England. 

5. Men have less sympathy on these occasions 
than women. A woman who has borne children 
has certainly more sympathy for the sex than the 
male can have ; besides women have more patience 



134 MIDWIFERY. 

and perseverance than men. A female when 
properly instructed, possesses a tact and adroitness 
in rendering assistance in the hour of nature's 
peril, which is unequalled by the male. 

6. Their whole time being devoted to this one 
branch of medicine, would render them greater pro- 
ficients in the art than the general practitioner can 
attain. 

7. This part of the practice rightly belongs to 
females and it would give employment to many 
virtuous and highly deserving widows and others, 
who would be very useful to their sex, and obtain 
a good living, who are now deprived of these ad- 
vantages by the prevailing practice. 

As evidence of the capability and great success 
of women in this department, we need only refer to 
Madame Boivin, Madame La Chapelle, and others 
in all parts of the world. 

To show how grossly and wickedly women are 
often deceived and imposed upon by medical men, I 
give the following from the " London practice of 
midwifery." 

" A patient, after the waters are discharged," says 
the author, " requires a little management. It is 
not just to stay with her at the time ; and yet it 
is necessary, if we leave her to leave her in confi- 
dence. 



MIDWIFERY. 135 

" Therefore, we may give her the idea of making 
provision for whatever may happen in our absence ; 
we may pass our finger up the vaginia, or opening 
to the womb, and make a moderate degree of pres- 
sure for a few seconds upon any part of it, so that 
she may just feel it; after which we may say to 
her — ' There, ma'am, I have done something that 
will be of great use to your labor.' This she trusts 
to; and if, when she sends for us, we get there in 
time, it is well; if later than we should be, we 
easily satisfy her. (' For the Doctor knows !') * Yes ! 
you know I told you I did something which would 
be of great service to you in your labor!'' 

If the Dlacenta is not yet come away — ' Oh ! 
I am quite in time for the after-birth, and that you 
know is of the greatest consequence !' And if the 
whole has come way — l We are glad the after-birth 
is all come away in consequence of what we did 
before we last left, and the labor has terminated 
just as we intended it should !' " 

Reader, one of our North American Indian wo- 
men could not be thus humbugged. - 

The Qualifications of Midwives. 

I shall conclude this subject by quoting the high 
authority of Dr. Beach. 

" Respecting the qualifications of Midwives, I 
feel it incumbent on me to state explicitly that all 
those either male or female, who engage in this 



1S6 MIDWIFERY. 



noble and responsible branch of medicine, should 
be well qualified, both in theory and practice. 

" I would not allow any to commence the pro- 
fession of Midwifery without first having expended 
a suitable length of time in study under competent 
persons. 

" No inexperienced man or woman should ever 
officiate in this department. 

" They should first acquire a knowledge of Mid- 
wifery either by lectures, recitations, examinations, 
or, above all, clirical practice, or actual attendance 
in the lying-in room, under the superintendence of 
qualified teachers." 

Dr. Maubray who wrote over a hundred years 
ago on this subject, (when female accouchers were 
more in fashion than they now are,) quaintly re- 
marks on the character of those who should be 
employed in Midwifery, as follows : 

" A midwife ought not to be an ignorant, stupid, 
indolent or a dull person ; and especially, not inca- 
pable of concieving matters distinctly, or judging 
of things aright. 

" Neither ought she to be a self-indulgent, sloth- 
ful or lazy ; nor a light disolute or daring woman. 

" She ought not to be inconsiderate, negligent or 
forgetful ; nor proud, passionate or obstinate ; 
neither peevish, morose or surly ; nor fearful, doubt- 
ful or wavering-minded. 



MIDWIFERY. 137 

" Neither ought she to be a tippler or drunkard, 
nor a tattler or vagabond, nor a covetous or mercen- 
ary person. 

" But on the other hand, in the affirmative, she 
ought : 

" 1. To be a woman of good middle age, of solid 
parts, of full experience, of healthy, strong and 
vigorous body, with clever, small hands, long fingers 
and a ready feeling. 

" 2. She ought to be grave and considerate, en- 
dued with resolution and presence of mind, in order 
to foresee and prevent accidents; sagacious and 
prudent in difficult cases, so as not to take all upon 
her own shoulders or judgment, but to have imme- 
diate recourse to the ablest practiser in the art, and 
freely submit her thoughts to the discerning faculty 
of the more learned and skilful. 

" 3. She ought to be watchful, dilligent and 
expert, in all cases and conditions that can or may 
occur, so that no opportunity in the beginning of 
the labor be lost; since I have more than once 
observed that the mistake or neglect of improving 
a critical minute, hath cost the mother many violent 
or heavy pains afterward, and the child also its life. 

" 4. She ought to be a true fearer of God, a con- 
scientious person, of good life and conversation ; since 
matters of the greatest moment are committed to 
her care, and depend entirely upon the faithful dis- 



138 MIDWIFERY. 

charge of her duty — for she has the first and best 
opportunity of showing her compassion and tender- 
ness to makind, in this infant and helpless state. 

" In short, charity ought always to engage her, 
to be as ready to help the poor as the rich ; the life 
of one, being as dear as the other, and the image of 
God being equally stamped upon both; for the 
recompense of charity far exceeds all other considera- 
tions of trifling gain. 

" 5. She ought to be patient and pleasant — soft, 
meek and mild in her temper, in order to encourage 
and comfort the laboring woman. 

" She should pass by and forgive her small 
failings and peevish faults, instructing her gently 
when she does or says amiss ; but if she will not 
follow her advice, and necessity require, the mid- 
wife ought to reprimand and put her smartly in 
mind of her duty; yet always in such a manner, 
however, as to encourage her with the hopes of a 
speedy and happy delivery. 

" 6. In like manner she ought to be modest, 
temperate, and sober, so she ought to be faithful 
and silent ; always upon her guard to conceal those 
things which ought not to be spoken of." 



MENSTRUATION. 139 



MENSTRUATION. 



The menstrual or perodical discharge from the 
womb, similar to blood, commences at puberty, and 
continues during the whole time a female is capable 
of conceiving ; occurring usually about every twenty- 
eight days, and continuing from three to six days. 
In some it occurs every twenty-one days, and with 
others it runs every thirty-five days. 

This discharge is called by the sex by various 
names — as the catamenia, menses, flowers, being 
unwell, (kc, &c. 

It appears to be peculiar to the human species 
alone, although the celebrated F. Cuvier asserts 
that he has discovered indications of it in some 
females of certain animals, during their sexual sea- 
son ; but by others this is considered nothing more 
than an exudation of bloody mucous. 

Symptoms with which Menstruation 
Commences. 

I have before stated that menstruation first takes 
place at puberty, or at that that period at which the 
female is propagating her species. 

This period must vary considerable, according as 
it may be influenced by climate, constitution, modes 



140 MENSTRUATION. 

of life, &c, always being some earlier in warm 
than in cold countries, and sooner in eities than in 
the country. 

Before the catamenia makes its appearance there 
is always an alteration in the condition of the fe- 
male: the breasts increase in size; the voice 
undergoes a slight change ; the pubes are covered 
\sith hair ; and all the best proportions which the 
individual is capable of are now suddenly as it 
were, developed. 

The mind also undergoes a complete change — 
childish amusements now yield to natural enjoy- 
ments and rational inquiry; the attachment of 
caprice give place to sincere unaffected, and perma- 
nent friendship — a new creature, seems suddenly 
formed. 

The yet nearer approach of the catamenia is still 
further announced by headache, dullness of the 
eyes, pains in the pelvic region, lassitude, capricious 
appetite, slight Jluor albus, and frequent itching 
and slight irritation of the parts. 

After these have continued a longer or a shorter 
period, they suddenly cease, and a small quantity 
of fluid is discharged from the vagina and that not 
much colored at first. 

Sometimes it comes on without any of these 
painful warnings. 

The last named circumstance serves to explain 
those cases of impregnation which are said to have 



MENSTRUATION. 141 

taken place previously to the eruption of the men- 
ses. This discharge ceases in a short time, and is 
frequently succeeded by a sense of languor and 
weakness. 

After a few months the same symptoms again 
commence, and after thus occurring a few times, men- 
struation is fully established, subsequently to which 
they generally appear monthly, with great regularity, 
unless interrupted by pregnancy, loctation or some 
diseases. 

Age of its Appearance. — In Lapland, 

females do not begin to menstruate until after they 
are twenty years old ; while in India they com- 
mence as early as nine years. 

A celebrated traveler states "that in Japan, he 
saw a number of little girls with children at the 
breast, or in theyr arms, their youthful appearance 
strikingly contrasting with their maternal ocupation." 

In Java, females are married when only nine 
years old. 

In this climate, the menses generally occur be- 
tween the ages of twelve and sixteen. 

Period of their Duration. 

The period of their duration and consequent ces- 
sation is as various as that of their commencement. 

As a general rule menstruation, continues about 
thirty years; and in this climate usually ceases at 
about forty-Jive. 



142 SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES. 



The sex instinctively apprehend great danger at 
this time. When it is about to disappear, it be- 
comes veiy irregular, both as to period and quantity. 

In medical history, we have an example of one 
female who menstruated until she was ninety years 
old. We have an example of another who ceased 
to menstruate for twenty years, and then commenced 
again at the age of seventy, and continued the 
secretion for many years. 



SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES. 



By this disease, we understand a partial or total 
obstruction of the menses in woman from other 
causes than pregnancy and old age. 

The menses should be regular as to quantity and 
quality ; and that this discharge should observe the 
monthly period, is essential to health. 

When it is obstructed, nature makes her efforts 
to obtain another outlet. When these efforts of 
nature fail, the consequence may be fever, pulmonic 
diseases, spasmodic affections, hysteria, epilepsy, 
mania, apoplexy, &c, according to the general dis- 
position of the patient. 



SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES. 143 

Any interuption occurring after the menstrual 
flux has once been established in its regular course, 
except when occasioned by conception, is always to 
be considered a case of suppression. 

A constriction of the extremities of the vessels of 
the uterus, arising from accidental circumstances, 
such as cold, anxiety of mind, fear, inactivity of 
body, the frequent use of acids and other sedatives, 
(fee, is a cause which evidently produces a suppres- 
sion of the menses. 

In some few cases, it appears as a symptom of 
other diseases, and particularly of general debility 
of the system. Herein there is a want of the neces- 
sary propelling force or due action of the vessels. 

When the menstrual flux has been suppressed for 
any considerable length of time, it not unfrequently 
happens that the blood, which should have passed 
off the uterus, being determined more copiously 
and forcibly to other parts, gives rise to hcemmor- 
rhages ; hence, it is frequently poured out from the 
nose, stomach, lungs and other parts in such cases. 

At first, however, febrile or inflammatory symp- 
toms appear, the pulse is hard and frequent, the 
skin hot, and there is a severe pain in the back, 
head, and loins. 

Besides being subject to these occurrences, the 
patient is likewise troubled with costiveness, colic 
pains and dyspeptic and hysteric symptoms. 



144 SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES. 

Our prognostic in this disease is to be directed by 
the cause which has given use to it, the length of 
time it has continued and state of the persons 
health in other respects. 

When menstruation- is suddenly suppressed in 
consequence of cold, it may be easily restored by 
pursuing proper means ; but where the suppression 
has been of long standing, and leucorrhoea attends 
we ought always to consider such circumstances as 
less favorable though not incurable. 

The author would here take occasion to remark 
and even censure the course adopted by many phy- 
sicians of attempting to restore lost menstruation by 
the use of deadly minerals, so often resorted to by 
empirics and pretenders to medical science by the 
use of steel, iron, antimony, mercury, oil of tanzy, 
and a score of remedies of a like nature, thousands 
of young girls, just budding into womanhood, with 
a long and happy life in anticipation have been 
hurried to " that bourn from whence no traveler 
returns." 

Many an amiable woman, from false delicacy, 
suffers her health to be endangered before she can 
summon resolution to apply for assistance ; to such 
I address myself in the voice of friendly admoni- 
tion. J would conjure her to reflect that even the 
highest virtues may be carried too far ; so far in- 
deed, as to border on vices. 



SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES. 145 

This is eminently the case with delicacy; for 
while nothing in the whole range of moral senti- 
ment can be more beautiful than winning, retiring 
decorum, yet when fastidiousness is erected on this 
sentiment, of so excessive a nature, as to endanger 
comfort, nay, even life, it surely becomes criminal ; 
and here, also, I would hint that my plans for 
receiving advice, leave no excuse for negligence, 
since they make no allowance that the most refined 
modesty can demand. 

But I would caution my fair reader, not for the 
sake of sparing herself a little pain in the avowal of 
her feelings, to entangle herself in the snare of 
public empiricism, too often the nostrum vender 
(who without knowledge or experience, aggravates 
slight diseases, and not unfrequently renders severe 
ones mortal,) seize on the unhappy victim of false 
delieacy, and stimulates her, by the unconquerable 
activity of an empirical remedy, until he places her 
beyond the reach of experience to relieve. 

In most cases, I am happy to say, success has 
been awarded to my exertions; where advanced 
years, or insuperable obstacles of nature have op- 
posed my attempts at complete success, I have been 
gratified in affording that relief which might be 
rationally expected. 

Many of my patients — some of rank and influ- 
ence, — have confided their situations tome: and 
10 ' 



146 SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES. 

I trust my professional reputation has been the 
means of arresting many a votary of indiscretion, 
ere too late. 

Such marks of honorable confidence, have pro- 
duced, which they could not fail to do, their legiti- 
mate effects ; they have not only excited my grati- 
tude, but have operated as a stimulus to perse verence 
in a course which my conscience approves. 

But a very few physicians correctly understand 
the different complaints, the delicate constitution of 
females are subject to. 

The most frequent complaints to which they are 
liable, are the irregularity of the menses and the 
falling of the womb, accompanied or produced by 
fluor albus, or whites. 

Either of these difficulties will cause consump- 
tion, if they are neglected or allowed to progress, 
and the proper treatment for their cure not under- 
stood. 



PEVENTION TO CONCEPTION. 147 



PREVENTION TO CONCEPTION. 



It will undoubtedly be expected that in a work 
of this nature, and particularly while treating on 
the generative organs of females and their diseases, 
that something should be said about Prevention to 
Conception, The author feeling the delicacy of 
the position in which he is placed, acknowledges, 
that a discovery of this character, if to to be 
depended upon, should be promulgated and every- 
where made known, that those who, from poverty, 
ill health, malformation of the Pelvis, or any other 
flumane and reasonable cause, deem it expedient to 
limit the number of their offspring, could do so, 
and thus be relieved from weeks, months and years 
of living misery^ which is too often the result of 
impregnation against the will. Again, there are 
other s, and they number millions, that would con- 
vert a knowledge of this kind to bad purposes, thus 
increasing crime, misery and woe, bartering all that 
makes a woman an angel, for that which dazzles 
the eye and intoxicates the senses, but which, in 
the end, bites like a serpent and stings Ike an adder. 

The following remarks are from a celebrated phy- 
siological writer, and are worthy of consideration, 
whether we coincide with the author or not. 



148 PUB VENICE TO CONCEPTION. 

He thus eloquently introduces the subject : 
" Libertines and debauchees ! these pages are 
not for you. You have nothing to do with the 
subject ot which they treat. Bringing to its dis- 
cussion, as you do, a distrust or contempt to the 
human race — accustomed as you are to confound 
liberty with license, and pleasure with debauchery, 
it is not for your palled feelings and brutalized 
senses to distinguish moral truth in its simplicity. I 
never discuss this subject with such as you. 

" It has been remarked, that nothing is so suspi- 
cious hi a woman, as vehement pretensions to 
especial chastity; it is no less true, that the most 
obstrusive and sensitive striken for the etiquette of 
orthodox morality is the heartless rake. 

" The little intercourse I have had with men of 
your stamp, warns me to avoid the serious discus- 
sion of any species of moral heresy with you. 

"You approach the subject in a tone and spirit 
revolting, alike to good taste and good feeling. 

" You seem to pre-suppose — from your own ex- 
perience, perhaps — that the hearts of all men, and 
more especially, of all women, are deceitful above 
all things and desperately wicked ; that violence and 
vice are inherent in human nature, and that nothing 
but Jaws and ceremonies prevent the world from be- 
coming a vast slaughter house, or an universal brothel. 



PREVENTION TO CONCEPTION. 149 

" You judge your own sex and the other by the | 
specimens you have met with in wretched haunts I 
of mercenary profligacy ; and, with such a standard | 
in your minds, I marvel not that you remain incor- 
rigible unbelievers in any virtue, but that which is 
forced on the prudish hot-bed of ceremonious ortho- 
doxy. 

" I wonder not that you will not ttust the natural 
soil, watered from the free skies, and warmed by the 
life bringing sun. . 

" How should you ? you who have never seen it 
produce but weeds and poisons. Libertines and 
debauchees ! cast these pages aside ! You will find 
in them nothing to gratify a licentious curiosity ; 
and if you read them, you will probably only give 
me credit for motives and impulses like your own. 

" It is evident, that to married persons, the 
power of limiting their offspring to their circum- 
stances is most desirable. 

" It may often promote the harmony, peace and 
comfort of families ; sometimes it may save from 
bankruptcy and ruin, and sometimes it may rescue 
the mother from premature death. 

" In no case can it, by possibility be worse than 
superfluous. In no case can it be mischievous. 

" If the moral feelings were carefully cultivated 
— if we were taught to consult, in every thing, 



150 PREVENTION TO CONCEPTION. 

rather the welfare of those we love than our own, 
how strongly would these arguments be felt ? 

" No man ought even to desire that a woman 
should become the mother of his children unless it 
was her express wish, and unless he knew it to be 
for her welfare, that she should. 

" Her feelings, her interests, should be for him 
in this matter, an imperative law. She it is who 
bears the burden, and therefore with her should the 
decision rest. 

"Surely it may well be a question whether it be 
desirable, or whether any man ought to ask, that 
the whole life of an intellectual, cultivated woman, 
should be spent in bearing a family of twelve or 
fifteen children ; to the ruin of her constitution. — 
No man ought to require or expect it. 

" Shall I be told, that this is the very romance 
of morality ? Alas, that which ought to be a mat- 
ter of every day* practice — a common place exercise 
of the duties and charities of life — a bounden duty 

— an instance of domestic courtesy too universal 
either to excite remark or to merit commendation 

— alas ! that a virtue so humble that its absence 
ought to be reproached as a crime, should, to our 
selfish perceptions, seem but a fastidious refine- 
ment." 

I will close this article by remarking, that a 
remedy of this kind is known, and an instrument 



PREVENTION TO CONCEPTION. 151 

invented, by the use of which this desirable end 
may be obtained and continued for time indefinite 
without injury to the female. The instrument is 
simple in its construction and operation, and can not 
get out of order. It is put up in neat, compact 
paper boxes, accompanied with full directions for 
use, and can be sent to any part of the United 
States, by mail or express : and is warranted to an- 
swer the end for which it is designed. Married 
persons, residing at a distance, enclosing the price 
of the instrument, which is five dollars, will receive 
one by return mail or express ; but will be required 
to state, in full, the reason, (which they will not 
object to do.) if honorable, why conception is desir- 
ed to be avoided, that the author can use his 
discretion when to forward and when to refuse. 



152 MASTURBATION. 



MASTURBATION, OR SELF-ABUSE. 



One would fain be- spared the sickening task of 
dealing with this disgustiDg subject ; but as he who 
would exterminate the wild beasts that ravage his 
fields, must not fear to enter their dark and noisome 
dens, and drag them out of their lair, so he who 
would rid humanity of a pest must not shrink from 
dragging it from its hiding places, to perish in the 
light of day. 

It cannot be that such loathsome wrecks of hu- 
manity as men and women reduced to drivelling 
idiocy by this cause, should be permitted to float 
upon the tide of life without some useful purpose ; 
and thus they stand as awful beacons, to make oth- 
ers avoid the course which leads to ruin. 

Self-pollution is that detestable practice by which 
persons of either sex may defile their own bodies in 
secrecy, and whilst yielding to lascivious imagina- 
tions they endeavor to imitate and procure to 
themselves that sensation which nature has appended 
to the commerce of the sexes. It is one of those 
impure habits which is coeval with the world's 
history. Unfortunately for the history of human 
nature, it has been found coeval with every form of. 



MASTURBATION. 153 

society, savage or civilized, and the denunciations 
of the ancient moralist are of equal application at 
the present period. 

It is a crime — monstrous, unnatural, filthy ; 
odious to extremity; its guilt is crying, and its 
consequences absolutely ruinous. It destroys con- 
jugal affection; perverts natural inclination, and 
extinguishes the hope of posterity. 

" Increase and multiply," is the scriptural text, 
and herewith we have the design of the Creator. 
There are few of those who have devoted themselves 
exclusively to the treatment of sexual diseases, who 
are not deeply impressed with the pre valency of 
self-pollution. We hold the warning beacon up to 
nature, and mark the treachorous quicksand upon 
which have been wrecked many a noble youth, now 
mouldering in a disgraceful grave. The poor slave 
of filthy propensities is a deliberate suicide ; and 
shall it be said it is wrong to strip the mask off this 
infatuation, to paint the horrors which await the 
unfortunate creatures who venture near the edge of 
this insatiable vortex ? 

There crawls not upon the face of the earth a 
more truly miserable wretch than the victim of un- 
bridled licentiousness. His imagination is on fire, 
burning with filthy, unnatural glow. His bodily 
organs have been taxed to the utmost. He is tor- 
mented with desires he never can gratify — he is 



154 MASTURBATION. 

baffled in every attempt to taste the sweet enjoy- 
ments accorded only to virtuous moderation. A 
thirst which he cannot quench is ever consuming 
him. The vulture retribution is preying upon his 
vitals. 

Let the thoughtless youth, who in some unguarded 
moment may have been seduced into the commis- 
sion of this criminality — but who, as yet, is unable 
to perceive its evil results — let him not imagine 
that the same joyous flow of vivacity will continue 
to attend him as now ; let him not presume upon 
his vigor, and rejoice in his seemingly exhaustless 
powers. 

Self-polution is the most certain, though not 
always the most immediate and direct, avenue to 
destruction. It constitutes a lingering species of 
mortality, and if it were possible to study and invent 
refinement in cruelty, surely that would deserve the 
designation which a man deliberately points against 
himself — - against not merely his temporal, but his 
external welfare; not by sudden wrench to tear 
himself away from the amenities of wife, children 
and home, but with his own hand, imperceptibly, to 
infuse a deadly poison, slowly to rankle in the cup 
of life, and imbitter each passing day ; to shroud in 
gloom the darkening future, and invite the king of 
terrors prematurely to do his office. 



MASTURBATION. 155 

It will be proper to notice a few of the more 
direct consequences of the habit of self-pollution. — 
It is chiefly on the youth of both sexes that its 
ravages are observable; death mostly removes in 
silence those who persist in the practice, in complete 
manhood. 

That this should constitute a vice of youth, is ex- 
cessively to be deplored ; inasmuch as we find the 
springs of life contaminated and enfeebled at the 
outset, and the transmitted vitality of a succeeding 
progeny is sure to manifest corresponding imbecility, 
puny growth and tendency to disease. Whether 
from the prevalency of self-pollution, or excessive 
indulgence in sexual commerce, so far as the loss of 
the vitalizing fluid is concerned, people leave off at 
the period when a rational man is only beginning to 
develope bis powers. 

An aged gentleman of our acquaintance, now 
long past the allotted age of man, became a parent 
very lately, of a new and healthy progeny ; and in 
every such instance, the early habits have been tem- 
perate, hardy, and sparing of sexual indulgence. 
The youth of the present day act as if they imagined 
they could never soon enough get rid of their chas- 
tity ; that there is something manly in the success of 
their exploits, not m the camp of Mars, but in the 
silken tent of Venus. Long before their bodies are 
completely finished, they begin to waste those 



156 MASTURBATION. 

powers which are destined to give life to others ; the 
consequences are evident — they feel nothing but 
dejection and misery — and a stimulus of the utmost 
importance, as the seasoning of life's feast, is lost to 
them forever. 

To those who devote their time to the relief of 
such, how many of these debilitated and emaciated 
objects do not daily present themselves ? — the 
countenance sunk, the eyes pallid, an indescribable 
character of feature better known than expressed ; 
the recipients of much sympathy from the friends 
who know not the cause of their apparantly con- 
sumptive, yet gradual decline ; and all ascribable to 
this abominable yet seductive practice of mastur- 
bation. 

An idea may be formed of the nature of this 
loss, and of the sacred guard which health imposes 
on its due preservation, by observing the consequen- 
ces resulting from its unnecessary, involuntary, and 
too frequent evacuations. Physicians of all ages 
have been unanimously of opinion that, one ounce 
of this fluid, by the unnatural act of self-pollution, 
or nocturnal emissions, weakens the system more 
completely than the abstraction of forty ounces of 
blood. 

Can a greater proof of its vitalizing power be 
given than this fact, " that one single drop is suffi- 
cient (under proper circumstances) to give life to a 



MASTURBATION. 157 

future being ?" Those then who waste this precious 
fluid are truly wretched ; disabled from rendering 
any service either to themselves or their friends, 
they drag on a life totally useless to others and a 
burden to themselves. 

The undue loss of seminal secretion in a natural 
way — that is, from the frequent intercourse with 
the other sex — is productive t of dire evils, but 
when resulting from self-pollution, no language can 
describe the extent of those sufferings which violated 
nature is compelled to endure. All the intellectual 
faculties are weakened, the man becomes a coward, 
apprehensive of a thousand ideal dangers, or sinks 
into the effeminate timidity of womanhood, and 
comes truly hysterical, sighs or weeps upon the 
slightest insult or want of sympathy with his hy- 
pochondrical sensations. 

Under the various forms of the peculiar excite- 
ment, but especially in the diseased fancy of the 
victim of solitary vice, we find associated every spe- 
cies of morbid insensibility, erratic imaginations and 
their consequent results, are indicated by an 
indecision of character difficult of comprehension by 
those who are unacquainted with its cause. 

An incessant irksome uneasiness, continued an- 
guish, or alternating with fits of unreasonable or 
childish merriment, depressed or excited without 
adequate cause ; these form some of the mental in- 



158 MASTURBATION. 

quietudes connected with the practice of masturba- 
tion. 

Loss of sleep, or inability to repose calmly until 
fairly wearied out, midnight watchfulness, and dull, 
sluggish unrest upon waking, with troubles, fright- 
ful or lacivious dreams; such is the history of the 
hours of darkness. 

The morning comes, but not with returning day ; 
the blithe song of the early lark, or the birds which 
chirp in the first beams of the summer sun ; mid- 
day passes gloomily away ; the lazy victim of solitary 
vice requires much sleep, in some measure to atone 
for the loss of power, and to recruit exhausting sen- 
sorial energy. Left to himself, he is often found at 
this hour still breathing the impure stifling atmos- 
phere of his own chamber, on that bed from which 
he feels no cheerful alacrity to rise. 

An indefinable, muddy, dizzy oppression of brain 
haunts his waking hours, his brow is often contracted, 
and his looks betray either the vacancy of his soul, 
or that his polluted mind is wandering after some 
indulgence that imagination has conjured up to his 
disordered fancy. 

He eats with avidity — sometimes raveneously ; 
for in this way only can the enormous drain upon 
the seminal fluid be partially supplied. At length 
the nervous power, essential to the digestive process, 



MASTURBATION. 159 

begins to fail, then slow fever rapidly emaciates his 
wasting frame. 

Previously, even to this, we may note that the 
skin assumes that pale or violet hue easily cogniza- 
ble by the practised observer, especially around the 
eyes ; pimples appear on the face, of course defying 
for their removal the ordinary remedies ; the powers 
of the body decay ; the shortest effort to a sifdden 
race, which once formed the exulting display of 
youthful agility is now followed by breathlessness 
and fainting; the muscular system becomes strange- 
ly enfeebled, and wasting away. The arm is shrivelled 
— the muscles of the thigh are shrunk ; the body 
assumes the stoop of decripitude ; the step, once 
tripping and elastic, is now a miserable dragging 
shuffle, or it is accidentally discovered that a walk- 
ing stick is really something more than an elegant 
appendage. 

All his fire and spirit are deadened by this de- 
testable vice ; lie is like a faded rose, a tree blasted 
in its bloom, a wandering skeleton ; nothing remains 
but livid paleness and a degraded soul. 

A gentleman of high connections, and apparently 
possessing of ever y requisite to make life happy, 
was found most unexpectedly dead in his bed ; a 
pistol, the instrument of his death, was clenched 
in his hand ; none cculd account for the rash act, 
and doubtless, but for his own revelation, it would 



160 MASTURBATION. 

have passed away as unaccountable as the tempora- 
ry insanity of the newspapers. Upon a piece of 
paper, in his own hand writing, was discovered the 
words, " I am impotent, aud unfit to live." 

Scarcely a day passes that deaths by suicide are 
not recorded, when no cause is assigned for the 
deed, but which, I am strongly inclined to believe, 
could we explore the 6ecrets of the gloomy prison- 
house, would be easily explained. 

It is a singular fact, that the habit of self-pollu- 
tion is connected with an inevitable diminution of 
the size of the penis. The author has had frequent 
occasion to verify this statement. Of nocturnal 
emissions, seminal weakness, diseased testicles, and 
gleet, as the consequences of masturbation, we 
have spoken separately. The diminution of the 
size of the penis is one of the first and most obvi- 
ous of this bad habit. The viral organ becomes 
shrunk into less than half its former outline, and 
what is worse, the power of perfect erection is alto- 
gether destroyed. 

This is not wonderful, if we reflect upon the 
diversity of operation between the natural sexual 
act, and the vile friction of the masturbator. With 
him, even if seminal vesicles be not sufficiently dis- 
tended with that natural stimulus which provokes 
secretion, he can produce by friction a higher state of 
irritation than is natural, and he can command the 



MASTURBATION. 161 

sensation when it would be impossible to maintain 
the requisite firmness of the organ for coition. * 

Thus, then, a variety of evils are engendered. 
The testicles are called upon suddenly and violently 
to secrete, and the excretory canals to discharge a 
thin, effete, unprolific semen, and the nerves of the 
penis are rendered susceptible of an agreeable titil- 
lation, without the naturally inseparable adjunct — 
the firm erection of that organ ; hence, when the 
masturbator tries to indulge in coition, he cannot 
assume the requisite solidity to effect penetration, 
or if he partially effects an entrance into the vagina, 
it is followed by premature emission. 

The organs have been accustomed to a vicious 
perversion, to execute without erection, or if the 
penis swell for a moment, the genitals of the female 
do not grasp the whole length of that organ, with 
the rude and forcible friction it has suffered from 
the human hand. 

The reason why masturbators are debilitated more 
than those who indulge in natural sexual inter- 
course, is that independently of the emission of the 
seed, the frequency of erection (though imperfect,) 
with which they are afflicted, greatly weakens them. 
Every part that is in a state of tension exhausts the 
powers, and they having none to lose, the spirits 
are conveyed thither in greater quantities ; they are 
dissipated, and this occasions weakness; they are 



162 MASTURBATION. 

wanting in the performance of other functions which 
are thereby only imperfectly done. 

We may discover another difference between the 
victims of solitary vice and those who indulge in 
natural intercourse ; a difference that is totally to 
the disadvantage of the former. That joy which 
the heart is sensible of and which should be nicely 
distinguished from that voluptuousness which is 
solely corporeal, which man enjoys in common with 
other animals, and from which it is completely dis- 
tinct; this joy aids digestion, animates circulation, 
accelerates all the functions, restores strength, and 
supports it. If this be found united with the 
pleasures of love, it contributes to repair and restore 
what is stole by force, and observation proves it. 
Santorious remarks, " After excessive coition with a 
woman that is beloved, a man is not sensible of the 
lassitude which should follow this excess, because the 
joy which the soul feels, increases the strength of 
the heart, favors the functions and repairs what is 
lost." 

Upon this principle, Vanette maintains, that hav- 
ing correspondence with a handsome woman does 
not exhaust so much as with an ugly woman. — 
Beauty has charms which dilate our hearts and 
multiply our spirits; when we excite ourselves 
against the laws of nature, the crime is much greater 
on that side than on the other; and can it be 



MASTURBATION. 163 



questioned that nature allots more joy to those 
pleasures procured in her proper channels, than in 
those which are repugnant to her ? In the former 
case the loss is compensated by the gain ; in that of 
self-pollution, the masturhator loses all and receives 
nothing. 

These are a few of the most prominent of the 
immediate evils resulting from self-pollution. That 
the dangerous consequences of these acts are not 
immediately felt, does not prove that they never 
will. I hesitate not to say that in their mischievous 
progress they are the heralds of every baneful vice. 

How fallen from the high and proud estate, how 
sunk beneath the true nobility of man, is the 
wreck of humanity whose deplorable excesses have 
reduced him to a condition so truly contemptible. 
It is merciful indeed, that the loss of memory, in 
some faint measure procures for him, negatively, 
moments of repose from that murderous racking 
thought, which can dwell alone upon images the 
most horrific and revolting. 

Of the serious constitutional diseases to which 
sensualism gives rise, we must speak more at large. 
The eloquent Tissot has arranged under six distinct 
heads, the evils which arise from self-pollution, and 
his description accords precisely with my experience 
during a practice of fifteen years. He observes : 



164 MASTURBATION. 



First — " All the intellectual faculties are weak- 
ened, loss of memory ensues, the ideas are clouded, 
the patients sometimes fall into a slight madness, 
they have an incessant irksome uneasiness, continued 
anguish, and so often a remorse of conscience, that 
they frequently shed tears. They are subject to 
vertigoes; all their senses, but particularly their 
sight and hearing, are weakened; their sleep, if 
they can obtain any, is disturbed with frightful 
dreams. 

Secondly — " The powers of the body decay ; the 
growth of such as abandon themselves to these abom- 
inable practices, before it is accomplished, is greatly 
prevented. Some cannot sleep at all, others are in 
a perpetual state of drowsiness. They^are affected 
with hypochondriac or hysterical complaints, and are 
overcome with the accidents that accompany these 
grievous disorders and faintings ; some emit a caleer- 
ous salavia; coughs, slow fevers and consumptions, 
are chastisements which others meet with for their 
own crimes. 

Thirdly — " The most acute pains form another 
object of patients' complaints ; some are thus affect- 
ed in their heads, others in their breast, stomach, 
and intestines ; others have external rheumatic 
pains, aching numbness in all parts of their bodies, 
when they are slightly pressed. 



MASTURBATION. 165 

Fourthly — " Pimples do not only appear on the 
face, (this is one of the most common symptoms) 
but ever suppurating blisters upon the nose, the 
breast, and the thighs ; and painful itchings in the 
same parts. 

Fifthly — " The organs of generation also partic- 
ipate of that misery, whereof they are the primary 
causes. 

" Many patients are incapable of erection ; others 
discharge their seminal liquor upon the slightest 
titulation, and the most feeble erection, or the efforts 
they make when at stool. 

"Many are affected with constant gonorrhoea, 
which entirely destroys their powers, and the dis- 
charge resembles foetid matter or mucous; others 
are tormented with heat of the urine, and a diffi- 
culty of rendering it, which greatly torments many 
patients; some have painful tumors upon their tes- 
ticles, penis, bladder and spermatic cord. 

" In a word, either the impractability of coition, 
or any deprivation of the genital liquor, renders 
every one imbecile, who has for any length of time 
given way to this crime. 

Sixthly — " The functions of the intestines are 
sometimes quite disordered ; and some patients com- 
plain of stubborn consumptions; others of hoemorr- 
hoids, or of the running foetid matter from the 
fundament." 



166 MASTURBATION* 

Such are the sufferings closely connected with 
unnatural and perverted enjoyments of the sen- 
sualist ; altogether the reverse of that transporting 
emotion incidental to the caresses of a pure, virtu- 
ous affection, which in some measure counterbalances 
luxurious fatigue consequent upon rational and 
temperate indulgence. 

My immediate object is now to insist upon the 
fact, that the habit of masturbation is fair more 
dangerous than excesses committed with women. 

This will appear evident from a variety of con- 
siderations. A well known medical writer adopts 
the axiom, that " Moderate indulgence in the nat- 
ural way is useful when the wants of the system 
imperatively demand it, but when solicited by the 
diseased fancy, it weakens all the faculties, the loss 
of the seminal fluid occurring not merely when its 
excretion is salutary, but too frequently for the 
constitutional powers to bear up against the. repeated 
evacuation.'' 

The loss of the seminal secretion.should ever bear 
a relative proportion to the wants of the animal 
economy, and to the powers of reparation, and this 
power varies excessively in different individuals. 

Now, unfortunately, in those who addict them- 
selves to self-pollution, the genitals acquire a state 
of morbid irritability, which continually craves for 
diseased enjoyment, and perpetually puts them upon 



MASTURBATION. 167 

the act. I say the power of sepe ration varies in in- 
tensity, and this is regulated much by the habits of 
the individuals. 

It is well known that constant employment, both 
of mind and body, places many beyond the reach 
of those sensual evils almost inevitably generated 
in idleness, but so it is, that the victims of self- 
pollution, and mostly the sedentary (for want of 
more active thought) are open to illusions of mere 
animal qualifications. 

Another reason why this habit is more certainly 
destructive, is the unrestricted and indiscriminate 
ruin it inflicts upon the whole moral and mental 
constitution of man. 

No sooner has this uncleanliness got the ascen- 
dency over our passions, than forthwith it pursues 
its slave everywhere, and retains possession of him 
at all times and places, and upon the most serious 
occasions, and in the very act of outward devotions ; 
he ever and anon finds himself transported with 
lustful conceptions and desires which incessantly fol- 
low him and take up his thoughts. 

The masturbator is subject to all those disorders 
which arise from the application of the mind to one 
single thought, upon which all its energies are con- 
centrated. 

In this way, although exhausted by perpetual 
excitement, such persons are liable to all the disor- 



168 MASTURBATION. 

dera incidental to primary affections of the brain, a 
state which places man beneath the brute creation ; 
and more justly entitles him to the contempt than 
pity of his fellow creatures. 

Besides there is a transporting emotion incidental 
to the caresses of a pure and virtuous affection, 
which in some measure counterbalances the luxuri- 
ous fatigue consequent upon rational and temperate 
indulgence. 

To this delicate susceptibility, the miserable vic- 
tim of solitary vice is obviously a stranger. 

The warm and passionate kiss, the unutterable 
thrilling embrace that lovers only feel, lives only in 
his diseased fancy. 

For it cannot be questioned that nature allots 
more joy to those gratifications, procured in her 
proper channels, than in those which are repugnant 
to our organizations. 

The joy which only the heart can appreciate, and 
which must be carefully distinguished from that 
voluptuousness purely sensual, which even a prosti- 
tute may inspire, animates the circulation, aids 
digestion, accelerates all the functions, restores 
strength, and supports. 

This is what gives to marriage that sacred home- 
felt sweetness which love inspires, and God looks 
down upon it approvingly. 



MASTURBATION. 169 

The sensualist affects to despise it, because owin^ 
to the degradation of his soul, there is a purity, and 
consequently an intensity in such intercourse, he can 
never realize, scoffiing at that he can never know. 

On this subject I shall be pardoned in quoting 
the expressions of Dr. Armstrong, one of the most 
sensible, intelligent, simple-minded of reasoners, 
and not more remarkable for his sagacity than for 
close observation of facts. 

He was accustomed to say in his public lectures, 
as a teacher of medicine in London : 

" The solitary vice of Onanism produces affections 
of the head. I know a boy seventeen or eighteen 
years old, who went at the age of ten to a school, 
where this vice was very common, and he became 
the subject of it, and from being a fine active boy, 
he became a perfect idiot — his eyes became promi- 
nent, his pupils dilated ; he had pains in his head 
and down the course of the spine, loss of memory, 
silly unmeaning expression of the countenance and 
a tottering gait." 

The doctor observes — "I think I should know a 
person in the street who has addicted himself to this 
vice by merely walking behind him, from his pecu- 
liar gait." 

Let not then the victim of secret vice flatter 
himself his unmanly act escapes detection. 



170 MASTURBATION. 



I put it to the common sense of intelligent men 
who have not made the sympathies of the nervous 
system their peculiar study, whether in fact there 
be any thing wonderful in the relation between 
sensualism and insanity. 

Apart from the power of vicious indulgences in- 
ducing bodily disease — apart from the debility 
thereby necessarily engendered, and that nervous 
weakness concomitant with the terrific loss and 
drain of the seminal fluid. 

I say, excluding these direct and physical causes, 
in themselves sufficient to account for madness, 
there is enough in moral causation to produce the 
wreck of intellect. 

Do we not know that certain pursuits often predis- 
pose to madness when the imagination is much 
called into exercise ? 

So poets and painters who surround themselves 
with an imaginary world of their own, are liable to 
insanity, and if there be one being, who more com- 
pletely than another isolates himself in an ideal 
world, it is the devotee of solitary indulgence ; his 
mind ever reverting to the polluting theme — his 
powers of fancy on fire, or actively tasked to invent 
new shapes of» excitement — his depraved imagina- 
tion incessantly employed in poring over some 
unattainable lust, the very slave of that appetite 



MASTURBATION. . lYl 

which grows not appeased, but more voracious and 
insatiable by present gratification. 

Insanity then in its present relation, is to be re- 
garded as the melancholy and not unfrequent climax 
of the consequences of self-pollution. 

The same causes which tend to enervate the 
general strength, to induce disease of the digestive 
organs, to break down constitutional energy, by im- 
pairing the tone of the nervous system, undoubtedly 
lead to madness. 

Generally there is derangement of the functions 
of the stomach and intestinal canal, sometimes con- 
joined with these, inflammation of the liver. 

There is evident manifestation of disordered in- 
tellect, seldom furious delirium, but fixed, settled, 
stupid vacancy, a feeble, oppressed pulse and cool 
pallid skin. 

Suicide is not an unfrequent termination of in- 
sanity, and doubtless, many cases of self-destruction 
which are recorded in the daily journals are attributa- 
ble to vicious practices. 

A momentary impulse is suddenly acted upon. 
The consciousness of impotence, it may be of baffled 
attempts to derive sensual gratification from abused 
and now powerless organs — the self-loathing conse- 
quent upon self-inflicted pollution ; these set 
themselves instantly and violently in awful array 



172 MASTURBATION. 

against the poor trembling wreck, votary of criminal 
indulgence. 

In a moment of desperation he rushes unbidden 
upon the realities of eternity. May madness shield 
him from the guilt of deliberate suicide ! 

A learned physician remarks — 

" I have met with many individuals who have 
had, they say, a predisposition to destroy them- 
selves, and I find this especially the case, when 
there is united with it disorder of the stomach, 
liver, bowels, or head, which leads to madness." 

This is a valuable remark, and its practical rela- 
tion to masturbation as inducing in many in- 
stances this precise state of things is too obvious 
to escape observation. 

It is a singular fact that such patients only, after 
a course of self-indulgence which is evidently de- 
stroying their sexual powers, consider this habit as 
the fundamental cause of their ill health. 

Unprofitable and unpleasant is the task on which 
such a one now enters ; for, instead of fortifying his 
mind against the immoral attacks of a depraved 
imagination, he fondly courts them, and, as prepos- 
session always exceeds the circle of possibility, he 
thinks every individual is acquainted with the nature, 
cause and history of his complaint ; every pimple, 
every flush of the face alarms him, and thus he 



MASTURBATION. 173 

fears the scorn of the world, which never gives itself 
trouble to think about him or his disease. 

The constitution thus breaks, as it were, before 
the ravage of the disorder, and thus exhibits a most 
hopeless state of exhaustion — all its powers become 
drained, all its energies evaporated, and the disease 
eventually riots upon a hapless imbecility, which 
nothing physical or moral can reach — an imbecility 
closely united to mania ; but what the indescribable 
process is that precedes this madness, we have no 
actual theory to guide us ; the immediate causes we 
cannot trace of this most afflicting, but most obscure 
of all human maladies, as none but the miserable 
sufferer can describe the tension and pain of those 
hallucinations and burning sensibilities, that by a 
gradual but certain action, drive reason from her 
throne. 

Medical inquiry is alone confined to^external 
symptoms, and of course possesses no means of fol- 
lowing the inward progress of the disease. 

The existence of it is generally indicated by 
great debility, listlessness, want of resolution and 
activity, a great disposition to sadness, an idea of 
future evil, and a long train of similar sensations, 
which powerfully contribute to debilitate the general 
system — this effect is manifested by the body be- 
coming feebler and meagre, the appetite voracious, 
the organs of generation so flaccid and enfeebled, 



17 4 MASTfc RB ATION. 



that the slightest titillatiou produces erection, which 
is succeeded either by an emission of a portion of 
the natural mucous of the glands of the urethra, or 
a secretion of the prostrate gland, and the vesticu- 
lar seminales, and a depression of spirits; these 
symptoms, by constant repetition, become very un- 
pleasant during the night. 

A constant discharge of thin, clear and slimy 
liquid, is at last produced, attended by that nervous 
irritability, which in many constitutions lays the 
foundation of more serious consequences, and if 
persisted in, will reduce the patient to the last stage 
of confirmed consumption. 

It may be deemed an exaggeration, when it is 
stated, that full three fourths of the insane owe 
their malady to the effects of masturbation ; but the 
assertion is corroborated by one of the first writers 
on medical jurisprudence, and is fully borne out by 
the daily experience of proprietors of lunatic asy- 
lums. 

The practice of self-abuse usually has its origin 

in boarding schools, and other places where young 

persons congregate in numbers. 

" One sickly sheep infects the flock, 
And poisons all the rest." 

And thus it is, though ninety and nine be pure 

and spotless as the driven snow, if the hundredth 

be immoral, the poison is disseminated, and the 



MASTURBATION. 175 

whole flock become initiated -into a vice which, if 
indulged in, will blast their intellectual faculties and 
probably consign them as outcasts of society — ren- 
dering them slavering idiots or inmates of a lunatic 
asylum. 

Our public seminaries and colleges are not exempt 
from it. 

The heads of our universities are particularly 
scrupulous in driving from their neighborhood the 
frail fair, lest they should contaminate the votaries 
of learning, whilst a vice far more degrading in its 
practice, and infinitely more baneful in its effects, 
rages within the yerj sanctuaries of classic lore. 

Many a billiant genius has sunk into fatuity be- 
neath its degrading influence. 

Loss of memory, idiotcy, blindness, total impo- 
tency, nervous debility, paralysis, stranguary, &c., 
are among the unerring consequences of an indul- 
gence in this criminal passion. 

Masturbation particularly "' exists among females, 
and that too to a very alarming extent. 

It is scarcely possible for any unprofessional person 
to conceive the long train of ills it produces. 

It is a knowledge of this fact that induces me to 
present to the world truths which will serve as a 
saving monitor to the unsuspecting of both sexes. 

I address these pages to mothers and guardians 
with the two-fold view of furnishing them with the 



176 MASTURBATION. 

moans of perserving the morals of their daughters, 
and of sparing them the pain and sorrow of seeing 
them wither and perish at an age when they ought 
to be the ornament of their domestic circle and 
enjoy health and happiness. 

This life destroying habit, will enable parents and 
guardians of youth to recognize by numberless symp- 
toms, the gradual disease which is hurrying them 
to the tomb ; and I must reiterate a previous asser- 
tion, that I cannot but hope this work will be the 
means of saving many from a lingering suicide. 

Let every mother, father and guardian, therefore, 
read this work, and they can learn from it whether 
their children or charges are safe from this vice, or 
have strayed from the paths of health and chastity. 

Have you ever seen a lovely flower, when the 
least breath would scatter to the winds of heaven its 
leaves, and yet retain its loveliness ? 

Such a flower is the innocent child which is on a 
brink so perilous, that, unless warned at once, is sure 
to perish and leave sorrowing relations to mourn its 
loss. 

Health and beauty are not the only blessings to 
be preserved ! All moral feeling, all proper senti- 
ments, the happiest gift of intellect, and every hope 
of happiness will be destroyed. 

Those individuals who yield themselves up to the 
enjoyment of solitary pleasure, to secret pernicious 



MASTURBATION. 1 7 7 

habits, soon exhibit more or less the symptoms of 
consumption. 

At first they are not troubled with fever; and, 
although they may still preserve their appetites! 
their bodies waste away ; walking, particularly 
wearies and produces profuse perspiration, headache, 
ringing in the ears, derangement of the nerves and 
brain, and terminating with stupidity. 

The stomach becomes deranged, the patient is 
pale, dull and indolent; their eyes are hollowed, 
their bodies thin, their legs can no longer sustain 
them ; they are totally unhinged, incapable of any 
exertion and in many cases attacked with palsy. 

The weakness and constitutional injury thus pro- 
duced are the reasons why such patients bear less 
easily those diseases which all arc subject to. 

The chest particularly becomes affected, indiges- 
tion comes on, the most robust girls are soon 
rendered weak, and sometimes a slow fever, a rapid 
consumption or apoplexy, soon terminates the scene. 
In a work upon the terrible malady of Rickets, 
the writer says, while speaking of the particular 
form that young persons who yield themselves up to j 
the seduction of solitary pleasures are often the sub- 
ject of the disease, and he cites a number of cases 
which came under his own observation. 

Among them he mentions that of a young 
female of seventeen, who died suddenly of them, 



178 MASTURBATION. 

and which were brought on by masturbation. — 
These are his words : 

" I saw a young girl of seventeen, of puny stature, 
but who became so rapidly curved, that in six 
months she was quite hump-backed. The chest wa s 
thrust in at the base of the breast bone ; there was 
a complete hollow at the region of the stomach, 
while the belly protruded." 

These solitary habits in many females produce a 
swelling of the neck, from the force and frequency 
of these convulsions which so often follow the repe- 
tition of this imprudent act, as well as by the arrest 
of blood which it occasions in the principal vessels 
of the neck, in the same way as observed in spilep- 
tic persons. 

The complexion assumes a yellow tint in some, 
while others find their skin covered with scurf. 

Professor Richard reports in his " Chirugical Nb- 
sography," a very remarkable example of the power 
of this cause in the production of eruptions : — 

" A lady had at the same time this pernicious 
habit and an eruption of blotches. She was ad- 
vised to discontinue the practice ; she did so and 
they disappeared. 

"She again took up the habit; the eruption 
again made its appearance; her reason once more 
taught her the error of her ways, and she once 
more conquered the penchant, and was never again 



MASTURBATION. 



179 



troubled with those blotches which had so disfigured 
her." 

Persons who are devoted to secret vicious habits, 
whether they be characterized by the delicacy or 
the too great activity of the nerves, may rest assured 
that they will become ipileptic, subject to fits, to 
palpitations and all other nervous affections. 

Any one who may observe a woman who has not 
been irreproachable in such secret practices, of an 
apathetic character, weak and languid appearance 
and pale complexion, you may be assured she will 
be idiotic. 

Mankind cannot imagine the effect these practices 
have on the present generation, or the destructive 
influences and consequences that will ensue to those 
in future. 

Every animated thing — the plant, the brute, 
the human species — are born delicate and fragile, 
and grow up in strength ; the tender shoot of the 
oak becomes a hardy tree; the weak infant, (if its 
source is healthy,) a soldier, a laborer, a vigorous 
man — if nothing be done to prevent it. 

If nature sleeps, languishes, or is deceived, it 
knows when to awaken to retrieve each error — if 
it be not incessantly thwarted or crushed — no 
matter by what means. 

The Author of nature has traced out its steps, 
has dictated its laws ; and a premature death, the 



180 M a ST U KB ATI ON. 

melancholy consequence of evil practices, is only 
one of the rules of his immortal code; let them, 
therefore, be engraved on the heart. 

How much it were to be desired, that persons 
would not so frequently despise themselves in^lhe 
world, and that they would not invariably attribute 
to family disease, or the contagious nature of con- 
sumptions, that which is traceable to vicious habits 
alone. 

Persons born of healthy parents, of sound consti- 
tutions, and who themselves are quite robust, and 
always breathing a fine air, find the chest affected 
by their evil habits, and the grave opening before 
them, long before their time; while on the^other 
hand, they on whom heaven seems only to have 
bestowed a very short life, are preserved by a pu- 
rity of conduct, to the limits of extreme old age. 

Far then from asserting that persons affiicted, as 
previously mentioned, are to be despised or blamed ; 
on the contrary, with some it is more the result of 
an unhappy destiny than merited; and that every 
motive of benevolence, urges to pity, and a relief 
of their condition. 

The blame we may feel disposed to attach to 
some persons for their bad formation can only be 
addressed with justice, to those whose childhood and 
youth have not always been free from reproach. 

It is easy to distinguish between those whom we 



MASTURBATION. 



181 



=1 



aught only to pity, and those whom we ought at 
the saiv.e time to blame. 

What will become of a lady's beauty when her 
health is deeply impaired? It can only bloom and 
disappear like the withered form and faded color of 
a flower nipped in the bud ; or, to make use of an- 
other comparison like the ruins of a temple destioyeJ 
by profane hands. 

It loses the elegance and majesty which delighted 
the imagination and inspired respect long before 
years and decay would have impaired those quali- 
ties. 

A young woman is this temple, and must expect 
to lose all the attributes of beauty, when once she 
gives herself up to this most destructive of all 
passions. 

The growth of the body, the development of the 
figure, all grace and freshness, will disappear; for 
this error spares no charms. 

No doubt, the words of a celebrated writer, re- 
specting a votary of this solitary vice, will recur to 
every mind — " She is a tree withered while blos- 
soming — a perfect skeleton." 

What a different picture those young females 
present who display so agreeably all the charms of 
their tender and admired sex. 

Consider a girl at the age when the attractions 
of youth succeed the grace of infancy; happy is 



182 MASTURBATION. 

the maiden who preserves her primitive purity, 
when like an unknown lake, in the bosom of a lovely 
country, her imagination as yet has only reflected 
the heaven above and the verdure and the flowers 
around, she appears to unite in her person the rarest 
charms of all the universe 

If man be the lord of creation, such a female is 
surely the queen, 

But this grace, and this fresh and fair complexion, 
are never to be met with in persons consumed by 
disease; and these portraits presented to us, under 
the names of goddesses, are those of persons who 
really existed. 

Can health and grase exist without innocence and 
modesty ? 

Chastity is the mother of modesty, and therefore 
health cannot long be enjoyed without chastitj^. 

Socrates said long ago, that a handsome body 
gave promise of a noble soul. 

Some ancient philosophers have supposed the soul 
to be a kind of divinity enclosed in our bodies. Cer- 
tainly, the sweetest rays of the divinity are found 
nowhere so conspicuously as on the brow of a wo- 
man worthy the esteem and confidence of hor 
husband. 

One of the wisest men says — 

" The beautiful of every description, is beautiful 
itself; praise forms no part of it. Thus nothing 



MASTURBATION. 183 

becomes better or worse from the opinions of oth- 
ers." 

But, reader, I will hasten from this painful sub- 
ject. I trust in dealing with it my motives are 
appreciated. In this work I have introduced to you 
in a modest garb, a timely adviser against the de- 
plorable consequences of self-abuse — that most 
fatal and pernicious habit of youth — - that dreadful 
scourge of humanity — that untimely destroyer — 

" He the young and strong who cherish* d 

Noble longings for the strife, 
By the road-side fell and perished. 

Weary with the march of life !" 

By this warning, I do not purpose to cast a 
gloom over the minds of sensitive sufferers, but to 
promise hope, relief and perfect restoration, even in 
the most unhappy state of extreme debility. My 
vast experience and wonderful success in curing the 
most unpromising subjects of a private nature, will 
warrant this assertion. 

" The miserable have no other medicine, 
But only hope." 

But it is always advisable to seek relief early, 
thereby avoiding much unnecessary suffering. 

The deplorable condition of the nervous system, 
induced by the depressing, degrading, demoralizing 
habit of self-pollution, in so many cases, causes 
unhappy melancholy dejection, moroseness, and 



184 MASTURBATION. 

finally that intellectual imbecility which terminates 
in the awful wreck of the mental and physical or- 
ganism. 

I do not paint the effects of masturbation in the 
deepest dies to horrify young imaginations, but to 
warn — to-day — now — for to-morrow the shafts 
of disorganization may have sunk too deeply into 
the system ever to be removed by the healing art. 

u Age will come, 
When love, aias the flower of human joys, 
Must shrink in horrid frost. O I hapless he, 
Thrice hapless them ! whose only joy was that : 
Whose young desires tumultuous still engage 
To wield a load of inobedient limbs 
With vain attempt. 

Him all the nymphs despise, and the young loves 
With leering scorn behold ; while vigorous heat 
Has fled his shaken limbs, surviving still 
In his green fancy." 

The anticipations of wedlock are crowded with 
misgivings, and often-times, the dark hour hangs 
upon him, and forbids him making the advance on 
which hinges his earthly happiness. 

If the secrets of the heart could be learnt, if the 
truth dare be told, how many at this moment are in 
like predicament ? 

The essentials to sexual enjoyments consist not in 
fine figures, agreeable and pretty countenances, 
pleasing manners and smartness of attire. 



TREATMENT FOR SECRET HABITS. 185 

Nature demands the nude frame dressed and 
armed with all the vigor, desire and freshness of 
manhood — with physical power and nervous cor- 
respondence — conviction of conquest — a certainty 
of triumph. 

Treatment for Secret Habits 

I need not say, where the treatment depends as 
much upon moral means as surgical and dietetical 
efforts, perfect candor between patient and physician 
should be used. The physician, however, if at all 
acquainted with human nature, can very often suffer 
his patient to infer his knowledge of his case, without 
charging him directly with being the cause of all 
his misery. Such a course should never be taken, 
unless in case where gross ignorance on the part of 
the patient demands plain language and intimation. 
In a great number of these cases that have come 
under my care, amounting undoubtedly to thou- 
sands, from all occupations and conditions in life, I 
have found no class of diseases that require a greater 
amount of sagacity, sympathy and firmness, than 
in those involving these habits. In far the majority 
of these cases is left for the physician to discover 
and inform the patient of the true nature of the 
case. This he should do in a manner evincing 
sufficient sympathy to interest the patient in Lis 
advice and treatment. 



186 TREATMENT FOR SECRET HABITS. 

The first effort that should be made, after ascer- 
taining the patient's situation, should be to impress 
upon his mind the absolute necessity of abstaining 
from the habit, at once, and forever. This cannot 
be done by an effort of the will, for self-control has 
long since been abandoned. Moral and medical 
means must be united if we are to hope for success ; 
all gloomy associations must be broken up and the 
cheerful society of both sexes substituted. Free 
air, and frequent riding on horseback, should be 
freely indulged in. The applicatian of cold water 
to the privates, two or three times a day, will prove 
of eminent utility, by diffusing the nervous excite- 
ment and arterial circulation, and preventing morbid 
accumulations of nervous irritation in the genital 
organs. When in bed the patient should accustom 
himself to lie on his belly, as Nocturnal Emissions 
always occur while lying on the back. The internal 
treatment of this disease is so complicated, as no 
two cases require the same precise course of reme- 
dies, that the author is at a loss how to proceed 
with this important branch of the subject ; to lay 
down any positive course of treatment, to be indis- 
criminately adopted in all requiring assistance, would 
be a hazardous undertaking, as the remedy that 
would in a measure restore one patient to health 
and happiness, might plunge another into still deep- 
er misery and distress. We therefore trust, that 



TREATMENT FOR SECRET HABITS. 187 

all, whoever, and wherever they may be, who 
desire to receive the benefit of the writer's experience 
in treating this especial branch of practice, that 
they will take interest sufficient in their own welfare 
to copy the author's address, and address him on 
the subject. Such letters should contain a brief 
description of the patient's situation, age, length 
of time he has been afflicted, and the state of his 
general health. All letters directed as above will 
be promptly answered, and should treatment be de- 
sired, medicines, free from mercury, can be forwarded 
in neat package form, to all parts of the United 
States, accompanied with full directions for use. 

For the benefit of persons residing at a distance 
from the Doctor's residence, he will briefly say, that he 
has devoted fifteen years to the treatment of secret 
diseases. Physicians in this vicinity of the State, well 
knowing the Doctor's eminent success, and extraor- 
dinary reputation in treating diseases of a delicate 
nature, frequently recommend their patients to him, 
that they may receive the benefit of his advice and 
the latest improvement in the healing art. To 
some, the above self eulogy may seem superfluous 
and out of place, but did the reader but know how 
many knaves, ignoramuses and pretenders our 
large and populous cities are flooded with, we would 
feel confident of receiving their forgiveness for this 
trespass on professional etiquette. 



188 BARRENNESS. 



BARRENNESS. 



The cause of Sterility is either a temporary or 
permanent incapability of conceiving or retaining 
embryo till it acquires a form. 

This incapability proceeds from some malforma- 
tion or deficiency of the womb, or, what is by far 
the most frequent cause, it is occasioned by local 
weakness of the womb. 

As a general rule, women who menstruate reg- 
ularly without pain, or the expulsion of coagula, 
or false membrane, are fruitful in children, but the 
reverse of these conditions is invariably attended 
with barrenness. 

There are other causes, however, .that are pro- 
ductive of those deviations from the laws of nature, 
and among them, chiefly, are — 

First — A state of fulness, and a disposition to 
obesity. 

As the person gradually becomes fat and inactive, 
the menstrural evacuation continues regular for some 
time, but at last diminishes, and becomes obstruct- 
ed, or goes into the opposite extreme, and becomes 
frequent or profuse. The patient is either barren 
or subject to false conceptions. 



BARRENNESS. 189 

This state is to be rectified by spare or vegetable 
diet, total abstinence from malt liquor, regular and 
constant exercise, especially early in the mornings, 
the prudent use of laxatives, and, after some time, 
the cold bath. 

The second state is that of relaxation ; the habit 
is spare instead of corpulent, and the menstrual 
evacuation is either profuse, or it recurs too frequent- 
ly, and at times clots and shreds are discharged. 

Such cases require another and different treat- 
ment. The diet must not be sparing, neither must 
it be unusually nutritive. Too much exercise must 
not be indulged in. Strengthening medicines are 
i required, and the cold bath is useful. 

Barrenness in women may also proceed from leu- 
chorrhoea or whites, or other diseased discharge; 
or it may be caused by inflammation, or excessive 
irritability of the uterus, by which the embryos are 
thrown off in a series of early abortions ; and the 
same result may be produced by the frequent excite- 
ment of amativeness. 

A question has arisen whether menstruation is 
necessary in order that a woman shall be prolific ; 
and it is generally stated that women who do not 
menstruate cannot conceive, This is true when ap- 
plied to those who have never menstruated, but is 
not in cases that have had a single monthly dis- 
charge. 



190 BARRENNESS. 

A French practitioner of some celebrity, once 
maintained that females who do not menstruate are 
sterile ; but he afterwards was obliged to change his 
opinion, from having observed some patients under 
his own care enjoying good health without evacua- 
tion, and bearing many children. 

There are more impotent and sterile men, than 
barren women. Nature has provided for this in her 
maternal care for the species. No woman can be 
the mother of more than twenty or thirty children 
at the utmost ; but any well man may be the father 
of thousands. 

A woman can possibly have one or two children 
every year ; a man may possibly have a hundred in 
the same period. 

Women in health are capable of bearing children 
on an average of for a period of twenty-five or 
thirty years, from the age of fifteen to forty-five, but 
their incapacity to procreate does not deny them the 
sexual gratification. Indeed women who have at- 
tained the age of seventy have been known, who have 
lost but little of the amative inclination and enjoy- 
ment which they possessed in their early days. 

Infertility among females has been ascribed to 
continual irritability of temper. Independently of 
fostering domestic disquietude, it produces thinness 
and feeble health ; and where pregnancy does ensue, 



BARRENNESS. 191 

it most frequently provokes miscarriages, or leads to 
the birth of ill-conditioned and puny offspring. 

Perhaps one of the most indispensable and en- 
dearing qualifications of the femenine character is 
an amiable temper. Cold and callous must be the 
man who does not prize the meek and gentle spirit 
of a confiding woman. Her lips may not be sculp- 
tured in the line of perfect beauty, her eye may 
not roll in dazzling splendor, but if the native smile 
be ever ready to welcome, and the glance fraught 
with clinging devotion, or shrinking sensibility, she 
must be prized above gold or rubies. A few mo- 
ments of enduring silence would often prevent years 
of discord and unhappiness ; but the keen retort and 
waspish argument too often break the chain of 
affection, link by link, and leave the heart with no 
tie to hold it but a cold and frigid duty. 

Treatment. 

Instant and immediate relief is neither to be ex- 
pected nor practicable, and the absurdity of such 
pretence would be manifest on the face of it. Even 
if practicable it would lead to the most injurious 
results, aggravating instead of relieving. 

A remedy, therefore, to be permanent, must be 
gradual to an almost imperceptible degree, .slowly 
but surely removing the stagnant humors and im- 
pure secretions. 



192 TREATMENT OF BARRENNESS. 

I have devoted a good deal of attention to this 
subject, and in the course of practice have effected 
many cures in cases that were supposed to be be- 
yond the reach of human remedy. 

It is not unnatural that many desire children, and 
there are those who in silence sorrow that this bles- 
sing is denied them ; who feel desolate and lonely 
without the enlivening and cheerful influence of 
children around the domestic hearth, knowing that 
it more closely knits the bond of connubial affection, 
and more strongly attaches the heart to the hallow- 
ed influence of the home fireside. 

With this view, the author does not deem it in- 
appropriate, or out the place, to present a subject of 
this character, and he is fully confident of his ability 
to eradicate every symptom of that state of the 
generative functions, superinducing barrenness and 
sterility ; and by thus disloging the cause of un- 
fruitfulness, making thousands happy who had 
imagined themselves irretreviably doomed to descend 
to the grave unpitied and unmourned by interesting 
and affectionate children. 



IMPOTENCE. 193 



IMPOTENCE. 



Impotence is a sad affliction. The desire to have 
children is almost universal, for they are a second 
life, and in them we live again. This desire is next 
to the love of life. Not to have the power of 
procreation, therefore, is a dreadful thought, and 
as all healthy and perfect beings are gifted with 
that power, the loss of it must be the effect of dis- 
ease. 

Masturbation leads directly to impotence in both 
sexes ; among men it is often the cause of sterility ; 
but women mayXe barren and not impotent, and 
impotent but not barren. Sterility in men very 
rarely exists without impotence. 

Impotence often arises from other causes than 
masturbation. It is sometimes produced from ex- 
cess of sexual commerce ; but nine-tenths of those 
who are afflicted with impotence mark it as the 
unerring consequences of sordid and solitary vice. 

I have treated at length upon the subject of 
self-abuse in another portion of this work, and it is 
not my intention to dwell upon it here. 

Impotence may be cured. It is not beyond the 
reach of human skill. Science points out the evil, 

13 



194 ABORTION. 

and presents a remedy. But delays are dangerous. 
Do not procrastinate until the fangs of vice have 
rendered your .disease incurable. 

My remedies have been satisfactorily tested. I 
have treated successfully hundreds of cases, and in 
every instance have effected a permanent cure. 



ABORTION. 



The untimely expulsion of the embryo, or foetus, 
circumstances will often justify — such as a degree 
of deformity that prevents delivery. To protect 
the life of the mother no medical man would hesi- 
tate to sacrifice the foetus ; but this, perhaps, is as 
far as his responsibility extends. 

It is exclusively the affair of the mother. She 
alone has a right to decide whether she will continue 
the being of the child she has begun. Moral, social, 
religious obligations should control her, but she 
alone has the supreme right to decide. We may 
not approve of the decision; we may look with hor- 
ror upon the act — but God alone has the power 
to judge. 

There are many ways of procuring abortion, but 
the most common mode is by sexual intercourse 



ABORTION. 195 

during pregnancy. Every woman who permits it 
does it with this risk. 

In this connection, we quote briefly from Dr. 
Nichols' Anthropology. He says:— 

"When a woman is weak in constitution, or 
strongly amative ; when a man is violent in his man- 
ifestations, or his penis is long, or the womb is low, 
there is always the liability to procure the expulsion 
of the foetus. 

" All amative excitement on the part of the fe- 
male, perils the existence, as it injures the proper 
growth, and injuriously affects the character of the 
child. 

" The excited uterus expels the embryo, and in 
thousands of cases this goes on, year after year, and 
people wonder they have no children. 

" Women who have neither passion nor pleasure 
are less liable to abortion from this cause than others ; 
and if procuring abortion be a crime, it is less so 
when done in this mode, and without any proper 
motive ? 

" Violent exercise of the body, or violent passions 
of the mind, tend to abortion and miscarriage. — 
Women of weak constitutions should carefully avoid 
both. 

"Errors of diet, exhausting labors and cares, bring 
on abortious and miscarriages. They use up the 
stock of vitality, or the organic force which should 



196 ABORTION. 

go to the foetus. It dies, and is expelled. So 
perish thousands of unborn infants, and as care and 
poverty increase in our great cities, so increase the 
number of still-born children." 

Abortion is often caused by drugs and blood-let- 
ting. Thousands of infant germs are poisoned in 
the uterus by allopathic medication, while a still 
greater number, from the same cause, come into the 
world diseased. The doctor poisons the blood of the 
mother, and from this the child draws its nourish- 
ment. 

In the effort to expel the child, by the use of 
drugs, the mother is oft-times fatally poisoned. The 
surgical method, that of rupturing the membranes, 
is regarded as the safest. 

Abortion is a violation of nature, but, as I have 
before remarked, it is exclusively the affair of the 
mother, and she should be left to judge for herself 
of the circumstances which may justify the act. 

It has become a custom of shocking frequency, in 
the prevalent unnatural condition of society. Peo- 
ple have no idea of the abuse and criminal extension 
of this resource ; and where it is practiced for any 
other reason than that of preserving the life of the 
mother, to it I am utterly opposed. It is an ope- 
ration which should be always undertaken with 
great care, and all necessary precaution should be 
made to satisfy the public mind of its necessity. 



MISCARRIAGE. 197 



MISCARRIAGE. 



Miscarriage is a subject which, properly, should 
be treated of in connection with abortion, but as 
the preceding chapter is almost exclusively devoted 
to the latter, I will here present a few thoughts and 
suggestions relative to the former. 

In respect to miscarriage, there has always existed 
much misapprehension and ignorance, causing useless 
and unnecessary alarm and anxiety to those who are 
so unfortunate as to incur its affliction. 

Its dangers are often magnified. If produced by 
any external bodily violence, causing internal con- 
tusion, or the rupture of blood-vessels, it is danger- 
ous, but not to the same extent if produced by 
violent passions, or sudden fits of alarm, or diseases 
of the uterus. But there is less danger arising from 
the miscarriage itself, than from the causes which 
produce it. 

The earliest symptoms of miscarriage are occa- 
sional stinging pains in the abdomen, extending 
around the hips, accompanied by pain in the fore- 
head, a feeling of fatigue in the lower limbs, and a 
burning sensation of the eyes. 



198 MISCARRIAGE, 

The patient is afflicted wkh thirst, occasional 
fever and shiverings ; and the breasts, which were 
before distended, beeome soft and flabby. A dis- 
charge from the womb of yellow matter, tinctured 
with red, soon after follows. 

The symptoms often vary when the miscarriage 
arises from a serious accident, violent falls, or bruises. 
In such a case the symptoms are more aggravated 
and more severe, and accompanied with violent 
floodings and discharges of coagula. Moderate 
flowing, however, is not an unfrequent symptom in 
miscarriages. 

Treatment. 

When a woman is threatened with a miscarriage, 
she should immediately undress and go to bed with 
a firm determination to await, quietly, the result. 
Excessive warmth must be avoided. There should 
be little fire in the room, though it be in winter, 
and the patient should be lightly covered. 

Wet cloths should be instantly applied to the 
lower part of the belly ; the drink must be cold, 
and all stimulants should be carefully avoided. 

The use of opiates is decidedly improper, in those 
cases where miscarriage cannot be prevented. 

After this process is over, if a discharge follows, 
the best mode of checking it is by the admission of 
cold air, or by dipping a large napkin in a pitcher 



MISCARRIAGE. 199 

of cold water, and dashing it suddenly against the 
external parts^rthe nates and thighs ; and this should 
be repeated until the uterus contracts, and the vio- 
lence of the hemorrhage is controlled. If this be 
insufficient and the blood continues to drain from 
the uterus, a large soft sponge should be passed into 
the vagina, and pressed up against the uteri, to pro- 
mote the coagulation of the blood. Port wine and 
water, as cold as possible, injected into the rectum, 
has been of service. 

A woman who is subject to miscarriage should 
avoid exciting fatigue, but regular and moderate 
exercise should be taken daily. A moderate use of 
wine is also advantageous, if it does not heat the 
patient, or otherwise disagree. 

Women more frequently miscarry in the second 
or third month, than at any other time. In such 
cases all exercise should be strictly avoided, and she 
should remain as quiet as possible. 

Particular attention should be given to the symp- 
toms as they occur; with proper diet and exercise. 
Sea-bathing and the shower bath are both excellent. 



200 FEMALE MONTHLY PILLS. 



NOTICE TO THE LADIES. 

Dr. Vichois' Female Monthly Pills, 



In the treatment of female diseases, we are quite 
sure the author enjoys an enviable and wide-spread 
reputation. The treatment in so dangerous and 
delicate a disease, as the suppression or stoppage of 
the menses, and the fatal and melancholy end of the 
victims thus afflicted, should enlist the skill and 
sympathy of every physician, and stimulate him to 
renewed exertion in the knowledge and treatment 
of this branch of medical practice. 

In severe cases, which have resisted the usual and 
more ordinary means of cure, the author can express 
his views on this subject no better than to give the 
" Circular" accompanying a. celebrated female pill, 
of which he is the American Agent, and has the 
pleasure to add, that the female remedy given 
below, is without doubt, the safest, surest, and the 
most celebrated remedy for the suppression of the 
menses ever. used. 

~No article of medicine, intended for the exclusive 
use of Females, that has ever appeared, has met 
with such universal success as these celebrated pills. 
No disease is so little understood, and consequently 



FEMALE MONTHLY PILLS. 201 

bo badly treated as Female Diseases. These pills 
are the result of much study and careful experience 
in all varieties of female complaints, and in cases 
of Irregularities r Suppressions, Zeuchorrhea or 
Whites, Inflammation of the Bladder, Kidney and 
Womb, and loss of nervous energy, their use is 
above all praise. Among the many thousands that 
have used them in all parts of the Union, none 
speak ill of them — for all like them. 

They contain no mercury, no iron, no steel — no 
deadly oils. Their use can do no harm, and when 
used according to directions, they will always do 
good. 

Directions : — One pill may be taken in the morn- 
ing and two at night, commencing a few days before 
the time for the monthly turns to appear. Should 
this quantity keep the bowels too open, reduce the 
dose, or if the bowels are considerably costive, the 
dose may be increased. Bathing the feet in vvarm 
water, daily, will be of advantage. Also, drinking 
warm, stimulating drinks of Pennyroial, &c. Active 
exercise in the open ah' is of no small importance. 

Patients afflicted with inflammation of the blad- 
der and kidney, attended with heat and pain in 
making water, should at first take sufficient to open 
the bowels freely, then one pill morning and night. 
No change of diet, pleasure or business is necessary. 



202 FEMALE MONTHLY PILLS. 

Caution. — Married ladies, who have reason to 
think themselves in the family way, should not use 
them, as by their action on the womb, miscarriage 
would be the consequence. 

Dr. Lispenard is the only agent in America. 
Price one dollar — sent by mail to all parts of the 
world. 



Buffalo, K Y., Sept. 5, 1854. 

Dear Sir : — I have heretofore had occasion to 
apply to you for your celebrated Female Pills, and 
so far from entertaining any fear as to their results, 
I am satisfied that they directly answer the purpose 
for which they are designed. 

My wife had for a long time been troubled with 
irregularity or suppression of the menses ; but since 
she commenced using your remedy her health has 
greatly improved. I am convinced that the Pills 
will prove effectual. Herewith I enclose one dollar, 
the price of a single box. Please forward the Pills 
by return mail. 

Yours, <fcc, 

H. J. L. 



Columbus, 0., July 7, 1845. 
Dr. Lispenard : 

Sir, — Enclosed find $1,00, for which you will 
please send to my address another box of your Fe- 



MALE SHEATH PREVENTATIVE. 203 

male Monthly Pills. My wife has entirely used up 
the first box I sent for, and the result is highly satis- 
factory. Address, 



I might add to these hundreds of testimonials re- 
garding the efficacy of these Female Monthly Pills, 
but I deem the above sufficient! I am daily receiv- 
ing orders for pills, from all parts of the United 
States and Canadas. No possible harm can arise 
from the use of the Pills, and when used according 
to directions, they are capable of doing much good. 



MALE SHEATH PREVENTATIVE. 



In France, a covering (used by the male,) called 
a JBaudruche, or Cundum, (known as the French 
secret,) is used with success, with a view of prevent- 
ing pregnancy. 

Its intention, however, and for which, perhaps, 
it is specially adapted, is to obviate the penalty in- 
curred by prostitution, and thereby guard against 
the contraction of syphilis or gonorrhoea. 

But as my object is not to facilitate, but on the 
contrary effectually to prevent the degrading inter- 
course the consequences of which are sought to be 



204 ITALIAN HAIR INVIGORATOR. 

avoided, in adverting to it therefore, I have only 
in view its adaptation to prevent conception. 

If made of proper material and texture it can, 
to a certainty, be relied upon. 

Deeming this latter consideration of essential im- 
portance, and having been applied to in regard to 
it, I have imported them, made of the only mate- 
rial of which they should be composed. 

The Sheath can be enclosed in an envelope, and 
sent to any part of the world, as conveniently as a 
bank bill. Price per dozen, $7 ; half dozen, $4 ; 
single one, $1. 



DR. LISPENARD'S 

Italian Hair Invigorator, For Promot- 
ing the Growth of the Hair. 



Among the many so called " celebrated " prep- 
arations for promoting the growth of the hair, 
removing dandruff, <fec, there is nothing that can 
compete with this well-known specific. 

Relying solely upon its own virtues, it has come 
into general use without the assistance of newspa- 
per puffing, and it fully stands the test of experience. 

This Hair Invigorator is a liquid compound, en- 
tirely of vegetable substances, and includes all the 



ITALIAN HAIR IN VIG ORATOR. 205 

properties and virtues of the different cosmetics 
intended to invigorate the growth of the hair, 
cleanse the scalp from dandruff and all its natural 
impurities. 

As a toilet article, for imparting to the hair a 
rich, soft glossy and curling appearance, nothing 
has ever been discovered to equal its incontested 
and unparalleled virtues. 

It exhales the perfume of the most delightful and 
exotic flowers, and is free from all mineral proper- 
ties or any substance which can color the skin or 
stain a lady's hat. For baldness and gray hairs it is 
pre-eminently beneficial. 

The use of this Invigorator is adopted and ex- 
tensively used by the first physicians and chemists 
in America, and when and where known excels every 
other remedy intended and recommended for the 
I same purpose. 

It is an entirely new and superior article. Its in- 
vention is the result of many years of practical 
experiments, and is prepared only by myself. 

I can therefore recommend it to all with perfect 
confidence, with the assurance that it will fully an- 
swer the purpose for which it is designed. 

Price $2,00 per bottle, containing nearly one 
pint, with full directions for use ; and sent by ex- 
press to all parts of the world. 



206 APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



I do not deem it necessary for me to present any 
remarks in reference to my own ability and superior 
manner of curing all of the poisonous affections 
treated of in these pages ; but however egotistical it 
may appear, I cannot refrain from laying before the 
reader a few of the very many testimonials from 
grateful patients, which so plainly verify my suc- 
cess as the result of a long experience. 

In addition to these, I have selected from a mul- 
titude of the complimentary notices bestowed upon 
me by gentlemen of the Press, a very few which I 
here present. They are the representations of some 
of our most eminent writers, as the titles of the 
several periodicals from which they are copied, will 
avouch. 

It is my design to put every afflicted person on 
his guard against mercenary imposters and their 
quack advertisements, which infest this city and all 
others ; who not only laud the pretended virtues of 
their remedies, but, with a baseness that is truly sur- 
prising, assert that they are the only known remedy 
in the world ! 



APPENDIX. 207 

In conclusion, if any one after reading this work, 
still places any confidence in quack remedies, they 
can go to any drug store and get them made up for 
themselves, at the trifling expense of twenty-five 
cents — perhaps for twelve-and-a-half ! 

G A SE I. 

J&r The following is a copy of a letter received 
from a young man residing in the village of ISTew- 
burgh, Wisconsin. It so well and fully describes 
the lamentable effects of Masturbation upon a once 
strong and vigorous constitution, that I present it 
verbatim et literatim. In it very many will recog- 
nize a statement of their own condition, and while 
it affords them a glance of their own immediate 
danger, it will also serve as a beacon-light to those 
who have not yet entered the fearful vortex — and 
perhaps be instrumental in rescuing many from the 
living death which affiicts the unhappy votary of 
this terrible sin : 

Newburgh, Wis., May 19, 1854. 

Sir — I wish to call your attention for a moment, 
if you please. Your Honor, I will be 19 year of 
age the first of December next. At the age of 16 
I addicted myself to solitary habit, viz : onanism, or 
self-pollution. I practiced this solitary habit till the 
middle of March last — when I happened to set my 
eyes on your Pocket Companion, or Marriage Guide ; 
and this stopped me in my career, until then my 



208 APPENDIX. 

health had been, and was at that time so that I 
could attend to my work very well ; but before I 
quit my bad habit I wa^ subject to sick spells, viz : 
such as sick headache, dizzy spells in the morning, 
and weak eyes; and when I read or write much, 
there is a pain in the right side of my head, and 
also a snapping in the same side of my head every 
time I step very solid on the ground — especially 
when I walk over rough ground. These sick spells 
came on as often as once in three or six months, and 
would last two or three days. 

My eyesight lias been failing for the last three 
years, and they have been for the last four or rive 
weeks so that I could not read but a few minutes to 
a time ; and for the last three years my memory 
has been getting very poor — but it has been very 
bad for the last four weeks. I have been troubled 
very much with the blind piles, for the last eight 
weeks, and also a pain in the small of the back ; 
and a lameness in the left hip when I lift anything 
very heavy, or stoop down. 

Ever since I abandoned my habit, which was 
about the middle of March last, I have had what 
is. called emissions in my sleep, or what is called a 
discharge from the penis, as often as once in seven or 
eight days, and sometimes once in ten or eleven 
days ; and of late I have had one for four nights a 
running, and I have not been able to work since. I 
felt very weak, and nervous, and miserable, but not 
so but what I could walk about. When I had these 
emissions, I dreamed very curious dreams. 

I never was in coition with a female. I am a 
single man. I have an aversion to women and 
society. I am five feet ten inches and a half in 



APPENDIX. 209 

height, and measure twT^Tb^Zch^Z^d 
the waist I have an itching around the private 
parts, and sometimes the end of the penis is verv 
sore and inflamed when I walk too Jci ? and J 
ate I have been troubled with a prickly heat be- 
tween my shoulders. I have not applied to any 
physician for help. I am a temperate man. I 
drink nothing but cold water 

HnL SOm f fmeS P v° 11Uted 1 m ^ seIf as oft en as three 

ouTof di~ m" m K at night ' and SOmetimes I 
mv tot r Q ^ hed a * ni 'g ht : like t0 & on ' 

my back. lam troubled with indigestion verv 

Ztt th % laSt dght W6eks - %°nose1s soml 
stopped up and a pain in the forehead and in the 

right temple and sometimes my nose is very sore. 

tVe?,;f If 1 r d 1 better thanI *ver *<*, except 
there la a bluish color around my eyes. But yet I 

dead?'' ^ misei 'aWe, and sometimes wish I was 

I now have given you a full discription of mv 
complaints and habits, just as they are. Please, sir 
forward your remedies as quick as possible, to 

n»Tn S T Do 1 ctor ' I h °P« you will do all in your 
power to relieve me — I am so miserable. If I 
could once oe restored to health and happiness, I 
should feel always grateful. 

Note.— On receiving the above communication, 
[ promptly forwarded to his address the necessary 
•emedies. I did not hear from him again until the 
25th of September last— an interval of three 
kmths from the time he commenced taking my 



210 APPENDIX. 

medicines. He wrote that their effects had been 
almost miraculous; that the emissions had entirely 
ceased ; . that he no longer had any complainings, 
slept well, was fast recovering his wonted strength, 
and believed that a perfect cure had been effected. 
His expressions of gratitude at his recovery were a 
little amusing. From beginning to end his letter 
was characterized by sudden outbursts of the most 
extravagant joy — such only as is known to those 
who, like him, have been suddenly saved " from the 
jaws of death and the pit of miry clay." 

CASE II. 

Syracuse, Aug. 11, 18£4. 

Sir — Owing to an improper indulgence common 
to youth, and which I commenced at the age of 13 
years, I was afflicted with nocturnal emissions, which 
it was out of my power to control. 

Gradually my strength became so exhausted, that 
I was unable to work at my trade, and finally be- 
came wholly incapable of the least physical exer- 
tion. 

I was a breathing skeleton, and my attenuated 
frame, sunken eyes, and pallid countenance, gave 
me more the appearance of a being from the other 
world than a living man. In addition to this, my 
memory became greatly impaired, and I was afflicted 
with severe pains — and oft-times in reflecting upon 
my fearful condition, I was nearly driven to commit 
suicide. 

I applied to a physician in this city, and stated 
my case. He said, without the least hesitation, that 



APPENDIX. 211 

he could cure me. I remained under his treatment 
for six months, to no benefit; and then I placed 
myself under the charge of another, and with the 
same result. 

About this time I heard of your " Pocket Com- 
panion," and purchased a copy of that book. In it 
I found my situation as completely described as 
though I had done it myself, and from that moment 
I was determined to consult you. I did so, and 
purchased your remedies, though I felt that my 
disease was beyond the power of human skill. 

From the day I commenced taking your remedies, 
I rapidly improved, and at the expiration of three 
months, I was a new man. 

Yery many young men are imposed upon, to my 
knowledge, by the quacks that infest our city. Hav- 
ing much confidence in your ability, it is with great 
pleasure that I present you with this certificate, and 
earnestly recommend your services to all who are 
victims of that solitary vice which, sooner or later, 
if persisted in, will consign its votaries to a disgrace- 
ful and untimely grave. 

FRED. B. V . 

CASE III. 

St. Paul, Min., Aug. 14, 1854. 
Dear Sir — I commenced the vile practice of 
self-pollution when I was quite young. I could not 
resist the desire to gratify my animal propensities, 
convinced as I was of its serious detriment to health. 
I continued the practice for years, and its effects 
were dreadful. I had incessant pains in my side 
and extreme seminal weakness, which rendered me 
incapable of any physical or mental exertion. 



212 APPENDIX. 

B At this period, I consulted a physician, and stated 
to him my condition. He could not account for it, 
but with my friends was of the opinion that it was 
consumption, and advised me to travel. 

At Detroit and at Buffalo, I spent some time, and 
uselessly expended a great deal of money in vainly 
endeavoring to procure relief. 

On arriving in Rochester, I called upon you, and 
though I was well nigh hopeless, I placed myself 
under your charge. I soon became satisfied that 
your medicine affected me for the better. The 
emissions soon ceased; gradually my health was 
restored, and at the present writing I can truly cer- 
tify that your treatment has effected a permanent 
cure. 

A. B. L . 

CASE IV. 

A young man. aged nineteen, residing in Roches- 
ter, N". Y., who had been afflicted with seminal 
weakness and nocturnal emissions for a period of 
four years, applied to me in February, 1852. He in- 
formed me that from the ap-e of twelve he had been 
addicted to secret habits, and that he had entirely 
abandoned the practice some three years since ; yet 
loss of semen in urinating almost constantly took 
place, together with emissions in his sleep, as often 
once in seven or eight days, for two or three years. 
His general health had been good, but at the time 
of writing, the effects of this disease were well 
marked in every particular. He informed me that 



APPENDIX. 213 

he had an irresistible desire to -avoid society, parti- 
cularly that of his companions and friends; his 
memory was sadly impaired; his body emaciated; 
his countenance ghastly; his appetite precarious, 
with a constant dread of business, or any employ- 
ment that required the least exertion. I placed this 
patient under my treatment without seeing him ; 
and although he had received and used remedies 
from Dr. Young, of Philadelphia, and other dis- 
tinguished practitioners, still my prescriptions told 
on him in a most astonishing manner. After using 
my remedies for two weeks, he wrote that my 
promise had in a measure been fulfilled. His health 
was improving ; that he had had but one emission, 
and this was very light ; that his health in every 
respect was better, and that several of his friends 
remarked how much he was improved. I sent him 
medicine on three occasions, which he continued to 
use with uninterrupted benefit until he became fully 
restored. This young man has since called on me, 
and with tears in his eyes, thanked me for saving 
him from a life of misery and a premature death. 

Note. — I would here remark, that my course 
of treatment for this disease is entirely different from 
that adopted by any other practitioner in this coun- 
try. Under its use the usual diet and business of the 
patient can be continued without interruption, and 
good health thereby soon resumes the place of disease. 



214 APPENDIX. 

CASE V. 

Oberlin, 0., Sept. 9, 1854. 
Dr. Lispenard: 

Sir — Six months ago I contracted a Clap, and 
after letting it run for some time, I attempted to 
cure myself; but instead of meeting with the suc- 
cess I anticipated, the disease assumed an aggravated 
and malignant form, and gave me reason to believe 
that I was doing myself an injury that might become 
irreparable. 

Accordingly I consulted a physician who adver- 
tises very extensively for the cure of such disorders, 
and placed myself under his treatment. After re- 
maining some time under his charge, although he 
afforded me some relief, I was convinced he was un- 
able to cure me, and I therefore dismissed him. 

I then applied to you, and procured your reme- 
dies. In a very short time after I commenced 
taking your medicines, their effect was quite appa- 
rent, and at the present time I am satisfied that 
the disease is entirely eradicated, and my system 
thoroughly cleansed of its impurities. 
I remain, 

Your Ob't Serv't, 

JOHN H . 

CASE VI. 

Hamilton, C. W., April, 1854. 
Dr. W. C. Lispenard : 

Dear Sir — I was first led to cultivate your 
acquaintance and friendship from learning of your 
extraordinary success in the treatment of Gonorr- 
hoea, to which my attention was drawn by a friend 



APPENDIX. 215 

who, like me, had suffered from the vile disorder. — 
Feeling, as I do, truly grateful for the permanent 
cure you have afforded me, with much pleasure I 
send you these few lines, which you are free to 
make use of as a public testimonial. 

C B. Mc 

CASE VII. 

Elmira, June 7, 1854. 

Dear Sir — Before I commenced your treatment, 
I had been experimented upon by every quack in 
the Southern Tier, but derived no benefit. Your 
remedies, I rejoice to say, have had a different ef- 
fect, and I am again restored to health. 

Herewith I enclose to you $10, accompanied by 
the order of an afflicted friend. Please forward 
the medicines by express, as directed. 
I remain, <fec, 

H. W. T . 

CASE VIII. 

Cleveland, 0., April, 1854. 
Dr. W. C. Lispenard : 

Dear Sir — I am at length enabled to assure you 
that your treatment has effected an entire cure, and 
I am no longer afflicted with Leuchorrhea. 

Naturally I feel a good deal of diffidence in ad- 
dressing you so familiarly upon such a subject ; but 
when I reflect upon the priceless blessing you have 
conferred upon me, and the gentlemanly conduct 
which has characterized you during our intercourse, 
and the deep concern you have manifested in my 
welfare, I should be indeed ungrateful did I hesi- 



216 APPENDIX. 

hesitate to acknowledge the same, from any false 
notions of delicacy, or suspicions of which you are 
unworthy. 

The directions accompanying the medicine, I 
have followed to the letter; the offensive discharges 
have long since ceased ; my strength has quite re- 
turned, and I no longer feel the distressing pains in 
my back and loins. I will continue taking the re- 
medies if you think it advisable, though I have not 
a doubt but that a permanent cure is already effect- 
ed. I remain, very respectfully, 

E.B..S . 

CASE IX. 

Frankfort, K.y., April 10, 1854. 
Dr. Lispenard: 

Sir— My unfortunate daughter, concerning whom 
I addressed to you a letter a short time ago, has at 
length experienced relief; and with a feeling of joy 
known only to a father who so long and earnestly 
had watched the gradual advancement of an ap- 
parently incurable disease, upon his only child, I 
thank my God who has made you the blessed in- 
strument of her preservation, when all were hope- 
less. 

In my great anxiety for her restoration to health, 
I may have overrated her danger, but I cannot 
admit that I was causelessly alarmed. I havo 
heard it stated that Leuchorrhea, or Whites, was 
" often the purcursor of malignant or cancerous 
disease of the womb" — and, certainly, the violence 
of her discharges, their long continuance, and their 
frequent changes of color, gave me reason to foar 
that her disease was assuming that character. 



APPENDIX. 217 

My child is but sixteen years of age, as I have 
before informed you. Her complaint was brought 
on by the infamous practice so common to the youth 
of both sexes; but I trust that the terrible ordeal 
through which she has safely passed, has inculcated 
a lesson which will not be easily forgotton, and that 
she will never again resume the vice which, but for 
the providence of God, would have led to her inevi- 
table destruction. 

Your ob't serv't, 

A. G. B . 

CASE X. 

Cincinnati, July 18, 1854. 
Dr. Lispenard: 

The instrument to prevent conception I procured 
of you, some six or eight months ago, has had the 
desired effect, and what is a much more gratifying 
fact, I am satisfied that no injury can result from 
its use. Enclosed find $5, for which you will please 
send me another instrument for a friend. 

I am, &c, J. H. C . 

Note. — I am compelled, for want of room, to 
omit many interesting cases. I trust, however, I 
have presented a sufficient number to give an idea 
of my success, and to warrant me in saying that I 
have no distrust in the efficacy of my remedies. 

Persons residing in any part of the United 
States, who may wish to avail themselves of my 
advice and remedies, can do so by letter, without 
the trouble and expense of visiting the city, and 
receive packages with directions for use, which are 
forwarded by express and mail to all parts of the 
world. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



A Friend to the Unfortunate. — Dr. Lispenard, of Rochester, N. 
Y., (whose advertisement may be found in another column,) is reap- 
ing a reward which he justly deserves. Thousands of young men 
from the " Buckeye State," have been yearly benefitted by his advice 
and treatment. Aside from his medical skill, he is a gentleman in the 
true sense of the word.— [Cleveland Daily Plaindealer. 

Dr. W.C. Lispenard. — This gentleman has just returned from 
a professional visit to Cleveland. The editor of the Plaindealer 
speaks of bim in a justly complimentary style. The Doctor's busi- 
ness is rapidly increasing. He has met with eminent success in eve- 
ry case he has undertaken, aud well deserves the excellent reputa- 
tion he has so honestly acquired. — [American Citizen. 

The most successful practitioner in the annals of the treatment of 
private diseases, is Dr. Lispenard of Rochester. Many a young man 
who had been sunk in despondency and had given up in despair, has 
by timely application to him, been restored to vigor and health. The 
gloom that hung round them has been expelled, and once more they 
are happy. We would cordially recommend the unhappy victims of 
thoughtlessness and imprudence to him, as whatever he undertakes 
in his peculiar line of practice, is crowned with complete success. — 
The application of patients to him from all parts of the Union, is 
ample evidence of his competency. — [Columbus Capital City Fact. 

Benevolence. — The love of mankind in general, accompanied with 
A a desire to promote his happiness, is true benevolence. It is distin- 
guished from benificence, that being the practice. Where is the man 
of <he present day who has exhibited more of these philanthrophic 
qualities of head and heart, than Dr. Lispenard of Rochester, in 
causing the saddened heart of the victim of private disease to leap 
with joy. The recent cures performed by him, which for a long 
time have baffled the skill of medical men, are indeed wonderful. 
— [Ontario Messenger. 

The overwrought brain and debilitated body caused by imprudence 
and excess, have found their best solace in the skill of Dr. W. C. 
Lispenard. of Rochester. Functional complaints, whether the results 
of dissipation, or proceeding from involuntary causes, have been 
entirely eradicated by the aid of his medicines, skill and advice. 

Ladies who suffer so severely from various descriptions of ailments 
will do well to bear this fact in mind.— [Roch. Daily Union 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 219 



CONCLUDING REMARKS; 

Business Terms, &c. 

My task is nearly completed. A few concluding 
observations to the general reader and I have done. 

It has been my design in this work to present in 
as condensed a form as possible, a comprehensive 
view of the various generative disorders which ori- 
ginate in the imprudence of both sexes — their 
cause and effect — and finally the treatment which 
they demand. 

I have abstained from the recommendation of 
remedies, because I consider medicine in the hands 
of the timid, the irresolute, or the ignorant, as more 
likely to produce evil than advantage ; but there is 
no malady treated of in these pages that I am not 
fully acquainted with, and which, during a practice 
of fifteen years, has not come under my treatment. 

Dr. Lispenard informs those addicted to secret 
habits, that his success in this branch of his profes- 
sion is unparalleled, and that hundreds are monthly 
restored to perfect health and happiness under the 
use of his safe remedies. He has been the deposi- 
tory of troubles appertaining to sexual disappoint- 
ments and miseries, that would possibly defy the 
belief of the most credulous, except those similarly 
situated. Nor has his aid and counsel been sought 
in vain. 

In relation to the physical vexations and embitter- 
ments of wedded life he has also had his share, and 
cannot tax himself with having failed to ameliorate, 
if not entirely to remedy them. 



220 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

Any lady may consult me with secrecy, so that 
her husband may not be even cognizant of the fact. 
Young ladies who may have been the victim of the 
base seducer, and dare not marry, lest their indiscre- 
tions should be discovered by their future husbands ; 
to these important information may be given that 
will defy the most astute observer of men and 
things to tell the difference. The delicacy of the 
subject forbids enlarging. In matters of privacy, 
much can be communicated by the pen, that is in- 
admissable in type — and as it is a rule with me to 
hold sacred the confessions of my patients, ladies 
need not hesitate to communicate freely upon any 
subject concerning their happiness. I am generally 
able to reply to the letters by the same day's mail, 
or the following at farthest. 

As there are many who prefer to consult me by 
letter, than do so personally, to all such I would say 
that this may be done by answering the following 
questions, and accompanying the communication by 
a bank note, (none others will be noticed,) and a 
prompt answer will be sent by return mail. All 
letters should be post-paid — none others will be 
taken from the office : 

Age, residence, occupation — married or single 

— strong or delicate — lean or fleshy — tall or short 

— complexion — any affections of the skin — con- 
dition of the bowels — is there palpitation of the 
heart — nervous tremblings or bad dreams — ap- 
petite good or bad — condition of urine — constitu- 
tion — the number of medical treatments that have 
been submitted to — when taken sick — a full de- 
scription of the causes, effects, signs and symptoms 
experienced — and all which exist at present. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 221 

The above demand of a consultation fee will not 
be considered unreasonable, especially when it is 
stated that Dr. L.'s daily receipt of letters average 
from twenty-five to forty, which are answered by 
himself alone, and hence those who seek his advice 
in matters pertaining to themselves, must bear in 
mind that his time is constantly occupied, and he 
cannot pay any attention to letters of this descrip- 
tion without the usual remittance accompanying 
such application. 

Persons calling at his office or sending for packages 
of medicines, may rely upon his assurance of confi- 
dential secrecy with implicit faith, and expect no 
more than to be charged with a fair, and mutually 
satisfactory remuneration for services rendered, con- 
sidering the circumstances and difficulties of cases, 
rather than a too prevalent and selfish practice of 
extortion among quacks and pretenders. 

Dr. Lispenard's patients will learn with pleasure 
that his medicines may be taken without any con- 
finement, hindrance to business, or diet. 

Dr. Lispenard wishes the readers of this work 
most distinctly to understand that his 

Remedies are Free from Mercury ! 

that he never uses it in his practice, in any form, 
and always succeeds in curing the most inveterate 
cases of disease, with remedies pleasant to. take, 
pleasant in their effect, and free from any mineral 
poison. In compounding his prescriptions, Dr. L. is 
especially careful to select only the best and purest 
medicines which are apportioned by himself with 
the utmost caution. 

There is now no difficulty in*tbrwarding medicines, 
well and safely packed, to any part of the Union, di- 



222 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

rected either to the residence of the correspondent, or 
to the nearest hotel, town, or railway station. 

"When especially requested, medicines in a concen- 
trated form, and occupying but a small space, can be 
mailed through the Post Office, the postage being 
ten cents per ounce for 300 miles. Otherwise the 
medicines in large packages will be forwarded by 
expresses, railway or stages. 

All letters sent to Dr. L. must be post-pbid, and 
should contain the name of the place, the county, 
and State in which the patient resides, and should be 
directed in a plain, bold hand, to 

DR. W. C. LISPENARD, 

Rochester, N. Y. 



OFFICE HOURS. 

Dr. L.'s office hours are from 8 o'clock, A. M., until 
8 o'clock P. M., except on Sundays, when professional 
attendance will be given from 9 to 11 A. M. Sepa- 
rate rooms are always in readiness, the most private 
of which are devoted to the use of females. JSTo two 
persons allowed to see each other, unless by request. 
A third person is never allowed to be present at a 
consultation, unless at the request of the patient. 

Letters Returned or Destroyed, 

Dr. Lispenard accumulates thousands of letters 
during the year, which, after the patients have re- 
covered, are of no earthly benefit to him. It is his 
usual course to return letters to their writers, when 
desired, and when not, to destroy them by burning. 
Patients, when addressing the Doctor on professional 
business, bear this in mind. 



INDEX. 


223 


I ZTXT 33 IE IXI. 


A.GE. 


P. 


Introductory and General Remarks, 


3 


Celibacy, ------ 


8 


Marriage, - 


12 


Yenerial Diseases, - 


17 


Syphilis, or Pox, 


19 


a Primary Symptoms, 


21 


" Transmission of Venerial Virus, - 


24 


" Secondary, - 


25 


Syphilitic Affections of the Mucous Membrane, 




Mouth and Throat, - 


27 


Tertiary Syphilitic Affections, 


28 


Syphilitic Affections of the Eye, 


29 


" " " Testicles, 


30 


Tertiary Syphilis, - 


31 


Tertiary Symptoms as they occur in the Osseus 




System, - 


31 


Cases of Syphilis, - - - - - 


33 


Treatment of Syphilis, - - - - 


36 


Gonorrhoea, - 


38 


Swelling of the Prepuce or Foreskin, - 


43 


Swelling of the Groins, - 


44 


Painful Erections of the Penis, 


45 


Swelling of the Testicles, 


46 


Inflammation of the Bladder, - 


47 


Does the Gonorrhoea ever wear itself out ? 


48 


Treatment of Gonorrhoea, - 


49 


Warts on the Glands, - 


52 


Bubo — Symptoms and Cure, 


52 


Gleet, 


58 


" treatment and cure of, - 


64 



3 



49 




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